]]>So many of our leaders and role models today are influenced deeply by money and corporations. So many of our politicians put corporate interests over what’s best for the people they are elected to serve. Celebrities are paid vast sums of money to sell their fans on stuff they don’t really need. Social media “influencers” have pages that are as much about products as they are about their life or what their page claims to be about.

We live in a world where we are constantly inundated with ads to buy, buy, buy. We are told that we’ll be happier with more stuff. We’ll be happier with luxurious items. Love, sex, and success will come to us if we can attain a certain image through material items.

This is all something I refuse to contribute to. I stand against this.

I want to show people that happiness comes from within. That products won’t buy us happiness. That we are all complete, just as we are.

I want to be a leader who is not swayed by corporations. I want to be a leader who does not make my decisions based on financial or material gain. I want to be a good leader who says and does everything because it is the right thing to do.

I refuse to chip away at my ethics and morals for money. I won’t let companies gain access to the people who follow me simply because I want something they have.

One of the greatest tools available to keep me accountable is a commitment to personal transparency. By making each financial relationship that I have with companies public, I force myself to do what is right. I have no ability to hide my actions.

I also want to serve as an example to politicians, celebrities, CEOs, and any people of power. I want to show how to practice financial transparency, and I hope to inspire others to do so as well.

I simply want to live an honest, ethical, and transparent life.

In this blog, I list every company that I’ve had a financial relationship to since I started walking this path in 2013. From this day forward, I will add any company that I start a financial relationship with to this list.

I commit to adhering to a set of ethics when it comes to working with companies. I will not accept money from companies in exchange for something that I should not offer them. This isn’t exactly a black and white issue that I can lay down exact guidelines for. However, I will practice complete transparency so that I can’t hide anything. As an example, I was offered $14,000 for a campaign with Ford. I did believe I could have a very positive impact with that money being donated to a nonprofit. But ultimately, I decided not to work with Ford as they are not in alignment with my mission and could not promote them in good conscious. I turn down a vast majority of financial opportunities because they must be aligned for me to accept them, and a majority are not. The opportunities I do take with companies will be taken only if it can be done in a way that serves the greater interest of people and does not compromise my ethics.

Here is an idea of what I’m looking for when I decide whether to work with a company:

First and foremost, what is the mission of the company? Is their mission in alignment with mine? Can we work together to make our surroundings more environmentally sustainably and socially just?

What does the company do with their funds? Do they support initiatives that improve the world? Or does their money go into places that I don’t support?

Does the company have a high level of environmental standards in their operation? This includes everything from the materials they use, to the factories that produce their stuff, to packaging, etc.

Does the company provides a product or service that truly aids people in living a more sustainable and healthy life. I’m not a fool for greenwashing.

Does the company have a high level of social values through the range of their business from who creates their stuff, to the communities where the factories are, to fair pay, etc.? Slave labor, child labor, unfair pay, etc. are obviously not acceptable for example, but that’s the very bottom level of the standard of what company I would work with. Do the people who work at the company get valued and treated well? Are the people who work there happy with the company?

Does the company have skeletons in their closet? Do they have a shady past?

Does the company push consumerism over meeting needs that people really have?

Does the company help me to live a sustainable life and demonstrate to others how they can as well?

This list is not exhaustive, but a good idea of what I take into account when looking at a company.

A few other notes before the list of companies:

I have vowed to donate 100% of my media income to nonprofits for life. So, when it comes to my TV shows, books, etc., I do not enter those for a personal financial gain at all. I do not accept any payment and instead they donate the money directly to nonprofits.

I have been working for the last seven years to de-monetize my life, and I have been mostly successful on this mission. I have committed to making very little money (no more than the federal poverty threshold per year) and having a very small financial net worth (currently I have about $1,200 to my name and my possessions are financially valued at less than $5,000). I’ve intentionally designed my life to be as minimally involved with money as I can. Much of my life is based around relationships and exchanges rather than money.

You’ll see that I try to get imperfect items such as misprints, returned items, refurbished items, etc. This is because I try not to get brand new items and utilize items that would otherwise go unused.

I have made a commitment to only work with companies that I believe in and think the world could use more of. So besides listing what the exchange was, I have also listed why I decided to make the exchange. The idea is to only work with companies who I would organically tell my friends about, even if they didn’t supply me with anything in return. By adhering to this philosophy first and foremost, I’m able to make the right decision based on my ethics, rather than based on financial or material gain. I’ve received likely hundreds of emails offering me free stuff, or payment to promote stuff, that didn’t align with my mission. I’ve probably only taken 5% or less of opportunities offered. To this date, I have personally never been paid to promote a product or service.

Note: I won’t list relationships that had a financial involvement of less than $50 because I don’t think there is really a need to.

2018

Live Like Ally Foundation gave a grant of approximately $30,000 to Happy Healthy and Free to partner on a handful of environmental projects. You can see them here. They offered to pay me $15/hour to direct this work. I capped it after $5,000, even though I did a lot more work. This is all work that I really wanted to do, and getting paid to do it was a blessing because I could focus my energy on this rather than public speaking.

Life Without Plastic supplied me with different items to live a plastic-free, zero-waste life and teach others about some tools. Examples include completely biodegradable toothbrushes and dental floss, biodegradable tape, reusable containers, and a charcoal water filter.

Retail value of $200 or less. Some of what they supplied me was used products and returns.

I will share some of these products on social media because I believe that people will be able to benefit from them in living a more sustainable life.

I made a video about Life Without Plastic earlier in the year before this exchange. I’ve become friends with the founders of the company, and we support each other’s missions.

Retail value of $240, however I asked for used shirts and they supplied me with ones they used for models and couldn’t sell.

There is no formal agreement, just to organically promote their t-shirts.

I am switching over to all-natural fiber clothes and away from plastic clothes (polyester, nylon, etc.). I think this is an important step in living a more sustainable life. I searched all over the internet and ONNO is one of the most ethical and sustainable (while still being affordable) clothing companies I could find.

The agreement is to organically promote them through using it at my tiny house and to make a post on social media.

Berkey is one of the most sustainable and affordable quality water filters on the market. I had one of their filters at my tiny house in San Diego that I had purchased and had been telling people about them for a few years already. I reached out to them to say that I was already organically spreading the word about them and would love it if they could supply me with a Berkey for my new place. They said yes. I would have purchased one if they said no and would still be telling people about them.

Retail value $650. They were supposed to be bringing me a used system, but they ended up bringing a new one.

There was no formal agreement of exchange, but the idea is that I will produce a video about it and that people will learn about it through visiting my tiny house and seeing it in my videos. This biodigester turns food waste in cooking fuel, and I think it will be an amazing tool in inspiring people to live more sustainably.

They wrote to me one day and asked if I’d like a bike. They didn’t ask for anything in return. I needed a bike because I was auctioning my bamboo bike. This company doesn’t adhere to any environmental ethics that I know of, but they are a small bike company, and they are trying to get more people riding bikes. It’s not a 100% match, but a decent match. If I had to promote them I wouldn’t have said yes.

I will make post on social media about them in return. This is a tool that I’m going to use to make coconut oil, nut butter, etc. It’s a great tool for living more self-sufficiently.

2017

GoSun donated $400 to Happy Healthy and Free and later in 2018 supplied me with a solar stove.

Retail value $700. They supplied me with a refurbished unit.

I produced a video about them because I think this is a great way to inspire others to switch to alternative energy and get people thinking about alternatives to the fossil fuel industry. The $400 donated to Happy Healthy and Free was used to produce more nonprofit videos.

Goal Zero donated $1,000. There was no exchange, they were simply supporting the project. BBTV donated $4,000. They are a media company that I have worked with to produce a video series called People are Good. I don’t remember exactly why they donated the $4,000. I think they just supported me and wanted to be a part of the project.

Note: Some people have asked whether any company paid to have their product in my trash suit. The answer is no. Their were a lot of visible brands in the trash suit because I was living the average American life and consuming like the average American. That’s what was on display.

I don’t recall there being an agreement. Likely organic promotion just by using it.

2014

I believe the Patagonia in San Diego supplied me with a few items of clothing for my Share My Way Home trip.

Retail value probably around $200 or less.

No agreement. Patagonia supports a lot of awesome initiatives without expecting anything in particular. Patagonia is my favorite large company on the planet. I’ve been a customer and fan of theirs long before they ever supported me. I will continue to support them regardless of any relationship I have with them. They are doing more for the environment than 99% of large companies in the USA.

About eleven companies sponsored my second bike ride across the USA- The Goodfluence Tour. They were all product sponsors. No financial contributions were made. I don’t remember the exact sponsorship value but have made estimates below.

Patagonia in San Diego, California sponsored me with about $900 worth of clothes.

The return for these companies was listing them as sponsors and organic promotion of their products through social media and media.

2013

About eleven companies sponsored my first bike ride across the USA- Off the Grid Across the USA. They were all product sponsors. No financial contributions were made. I don’t remember the exact sponsorship value but have made estimates below.

Dr. Bronner’s, neat-os, Dinkum Systems, and Bokashi Earth sponsored me with $100 or less in products.

Kala Brand Music, Drips Water, and PowerPot sponsored me with between $100 and $250 in products.

Goal Zero sponsored me with somewhere in the ballpark of $750 to $1,000 in products I believe.

Bamboosero sponsored me with a bamboo bicycle. The value of this was around $2,000. As part of the agreement, I raised $2,000 through my bike ride for the worldbike nonprofit to help bring bicycles to people in Africa to supply sustainable transportation and entrepreneurial opportunities.

The return for these companies was listing them as sponsors and organic promotion of their products through social media and media.

Onya donated $400 after HHF produced a video titled It’s Time to Ditch Plastic Produce Bags. This donation was made to support HHF video production and was not part of any agreement. They made the donation after the video was released. The funds were used to produce nonprofit videos.

Landpack donated $500 to HHF after we filmed a video there. They wanted to support HHF video production and this donation was not part of any agreement. The funds were used to produce nonprofit videos.

Nicholas Schwarz Design donated $500 to HHF in exchange for producing a video about his business of turning wasted pallets into furniture. The funds were used to produce nonprofit videos.

My Personal income

As I said above, I have been working for the last seven years to de-monetize my life. I have committed to making very little money (no more than the federal poverty threshold per year) and having a very small financial net worth (currently I have about $1,200 to my name and my possessions are financially valued at less than $5,000). I’ve intentionally designed my life to be as minimally involved with money as I can. Much of my life is based around relationships and exchanges rather than money. Here is a breakdown of how I have personally earned money in the last years:

2018- $8,000 total earned.

$5,000 from Live Like Ally Foundation. Live Like Ally gave Happy Healthy and Free a grant of approximately $30,000 to partner on a handful of environmental projects. You can see them here. They offered to pay me $15/ hour to direct this work. I capped it after $5,000, even though I did a lot more work. This is all work that I really wanted to do, and getting paid to do it was a blessing because I could focus my energy on this rather than public speaking.

$3,000 from public speaking

2017- $5,000 total earned from public speaking.

2016- $0 total earned. I had funds saved from previous years worked.

Prior to 2016 I ran The Greenfield Group, a marketing company I started in 2011, and ran until 2014. I did other sales at that time as well.

So there it is, my commitments to financial and corporate relations transparency and a list of all financial relationships I’ve recently had. I’m really happy to have looked back at all of these relationships and to be able to feel good about it. Up to this point, I think I’ve managed to do a great job, and from here on I intend to do equally good or better. The idea of transparency is to put it out there so other’s can make their own decisions though. I might make mistakes, but if I do, you will get to know about them.

]]>I’m not running for office. I don’t work for the government. But I am your public servant.http://robgreenfield.tv/publicservant/
Sat, 03 Nov 2018 17:47:49 +0000http://robgreenfield.tv/?p=12321I am not running for office. I don’t work for the government. But I do consider myself a public servant. […]

]]>I am not running for office. I don’t work for the government. But I do consider myself a public servant. I have designed my life to be of service to the people of my nation and the people of the world. As an American citizen, I am dedicated to using my life to improve the lives of those around me. I’ve watched our “public servants” over the last couple of decades, and I’ve learned a lot. From some, I have learned who I want to be. From others, I have learned who I don’t want to be.

I have put countless hours of thought into how I can mold myself to be of best service to my country and the world. And I have put far more hours into solid action, becoming the human I want to be, and leading by a positive example to truly be of service.

I feel today, just before midterm elections 2018, is a timely day to share my personal commitments as a public servant to my nation and the world.

When I look at our current political system I see many deeply rooted flaws. We call our system a democracy, but basic research shows that we have more of a semi-democracy, or even a pseudo-democracy. Many of the roots to our flawed democracy are a matter of money. Politicians are bought by corporations and lobbyists. Elections are swayed by the desires of private interests. And when those people are elected, they have favors to pay back. They say money makes the world go around. I don’t believe this. I’m certain the world would keep going around without the existence of money. But in our current society, it is undoubtedly the center of a vast portion of our lives. Because of this I have made deep commitments in how I let money be a part of my life.

I commit to earning no more than what is considered the federal poverty guideline annually. In 2018, that is approximately $12,000 for an individual. In 2018, I have earned $8,000. In 2017, I earned $5,000. By drastically limiting the amount of money that I can earn, I drastically limit the ability for anyone or any company to purchase my decision making, my audience, my influence, or to sway my personal morals and ethics. I have freed myself to make decisions based on what’s best for others rather than what’s best for my financial wealth.

I commit to maintaining a very small net worth. My financial net worth will be maintained at or below my yearly maximum earnings mentioned above. This would be about $12,000 or less currently. The net worth of my physical possessions will not exceed that same guideline. Currently my net worth is around $6,000. I have about $1,200 cash. My possessions are financially valued at less than $5,000. I have no investment accounts or bank account. My opinions can’t be swayed through the temptation of expensive items such as cars or property.

I have committed for life to donating 100% of my media earnings to environmental nonprofits. That is the main way that money enters my life. I have no desire to become financially wealthy through any level of fame or celebrity that I gain. Since first making my vows in April of 2015, donations of $43,000 have been made to nonprofits that are working for the betterment of our society. This includes the two TV shows I’ve done and my first book. $43,000 is not an incredible amount of money, but I have focused my life around not generating money, so given that, it’s a meaningful amount to me. I put it into grassroots nonprofits who use the money wisely and can make a big difference with a little bit of money.

I commit to adhering to a set of ethics when it comes to working with companies. I will not accept money from companies in exchange for something that I should not offer them. This isn’t exactly a black and white issue that I can lay down exact guidelines for. However, I will practice complete transparency, so that I can’t hide anything. As an example, I was offered $14,000 for a campaign with Ford. I did believe I could have a very positive impact with that money being donated to a nonprofit. But ultimately, I decided not to work with Ford as they are not in alignment with my mission and could not promote them in good conscious. I turn down a vast majority of financial opportunities because they must be aligned for me to accept them, and a majority are not. The opportunities I do take with companies will be taken only if it can be done in a way that serves the greater interest of people and does not compromise my ethics.

I commit to practicing financial transparency. There will be no hiding of what I do with my money. You’ll know where it comes from and who I support. I am always open to questions about my involvement with money and will answer those questions.

By focusing on a life removed from the monetary system, I have freed myself to live in the service of others. I have simplified my life to basic needs, and I know how to meet those needs, which frees up my time to be in the service of others. I keep my voice independent. I keep my focus on what matters in life to myself and others. I prevent myself from being swayed in ways that I know are not right. The trickle down of living a non-monetized way of life is not fully explainable in a short blog. The positive impacts of truthful, dignified, and ethical living are countless and not even always known or understood.

My intention is to adhere to these commitments for my entire life. However, too often I see people make lifetime commitments and all too often I see these “lifetime” commitments last a fraction of their life. Because of that, I am making my vows for four-year periods. I chose four years, the length of presidency in the United States, because I wanted to feel how long that is, so I can understand how so many of them break their promises in that time. These vows are a renewal of my original vows on April 8th, 2015 that were committed to until April 8th, 2019. These vows will be in effect from today until November 3rd, 2020 at which time my vows will fall into four-year time periods, falling on election days. I will renew my vows, with changes if decided, every four years.

At this point I am not running for any governmental positions. I feel I am best in service as an independent person doing what I’m doing. It is possible that I will hold a government position in the future.

If I do, I would not accept a salary and 100% of the funds would be used to serve the people I was elected to serve.

If I do, I would not accept any money from businesses that could sway my decision. I would not accept campaign contributions from corporations or Super PACs. If running for a smaller office, I would even like to run with no fundraising being used on my election, and instead all funds raised being used to improve the community while I am running.

If I do, I will do it not as a job, but as a passion and for the sake of the people I am elected to serve. It will not be a career. Benefit packages will play no important roll. It will truly be a matter of service to the people.

These personal commitments I have made guarantee that I will never be the 1% or represent the 1%. I will always be the 99% and represent the 99%.

This writing is largely focusing on money because I see that as what is so deeply detrimental to our current government. Over the last seven years I have worked diligently to align myself with a higher set of ethics and morals. And most of that is not about money.

As my voice grows, I want to grow as a leader that has a positive influence on our representatives. I don’t feel that I need to be in the system to have a positive effect on the system right now. I am confident that I can do that by showing them what is possible as a human being. Of course, every public servant is first and foremost a human being.

Currently I will continue my public service through programs that I’ve created to benefit my fellow citizens. This year I started Gardens for Single Moms and have built gardens for five single parent families to help them grow their own healthy food. I have planted hundreds of Community Fruit Trees around the nation. I have helped thousands of people grow their own healthy food through the Free Seed Project.

I will continue my public speaking, most of which is either free of charge or used to raise money for environmental projects.

I will continue my activism, spreading the truth about issues that matter.

I will continue to live a life that is alignment with environmental sustainability and justice.

I will continue to acknowledge the hardships of others and change my life to make sure I am not contributing to their hardship, and instead live in a way that is helpful.

I will continue to act through a place of compassion, kindness, and understanding. Not a place of fear, hatred, or jealousy.

I will continue to speak and act truthfully. I will not lie.

I will continue to educate myself to be of better service.

I will continue to work on myself, to be a better person and a better leader.

I will continue to live simply, so that others may simply live.

This I will continue, to be of service to the earth, my community, and myself.

As your public servant.

There are a few important things I would like to make sure do not go unsaid.

My intention is not to simulate poverty through my financial commitments. I live a good life. My needs are met. I am very thankful for this. My commitment to living simply with minimal money is to be used as a tool to affect positive change in the best way that I know how to today.

I acknowledge my privilege in being able to live this way. I understand many people could not do this like I can. I aim to always acknowledge the privilege that I do have and to use it to empower and lift others up. I aim to use my privilege to create a more sustainable and just world. I aim to make sure that I don’t use my privilege in a way that is harmful and unfair to others.

My life is centered around affecting positive change. I don’t put these commitments on myself to limit my ability to affect change. Rather, these commitments are designed to increase my ability to affect positive change. In changing times it’s likely that I will change my methods some, but I will always stick to a core of honesty, transparency, and actions that are truly in alignment with the ethics and morals I have laid out here.

“This gem was inspired by Rob Greenfield a friend, activist, and warrior against waste. This little cabin is made from over 90% recycled materials and stuff that was left over or thrown away.”

“The house is over 90% foraged and scavenged materials. The sinks and toilets were discarded from people buying high end products for their new homes. The roof, tile, most PVC and wiring was left over from two recent builds. One is a home I built here made from shipping containers. The wood is the round part of teak that is considered trash by some and treasure by us. The cabin is surrounded by terrace gardens planted with a ton of food. It is a fusion of Eastern terraces and polyculture.”

Here’s a photo album that Justin made:

This gem was inspired by Rob Greenfield a friend, activist, and warrior against waste. Over 90% of the home comes from item that were discarded as waste.

“Thanks for being an inspiration and leading the way. If is wasn’t for you, I would have never set to goal to build a house out of stuff that is thrown away. You have shown me and the world (better than anyone else) how many resources we waste.”

I spent some time with Justin when I visited Costa Rica in spring of 2017 and he has become a dear friend. He is the creator of Saint Michael’s Sustainable Community and the Permaculture Country Club. The Greenfield Recycled Cabin is located at Saint Michael’s Sustainable Community. Take a tour of the community with this video I produced while I was staying there:

Justin is a very genuine human being and someone that I respect greatly. What he’s doing in Costa Rica is extremely impressive and well thought out. If you get a chance to go to Costa Rica and stay in the Greenfield Recycled Cabin on his property, I’d highly recommend it! Send me a picture of you in the cabin if you go!

]]>Tiny House Update: The Outdoor Kitchen, Compost Toilet and Rainwater Harvestinghttp://robgreenfield.tv/tinyhouseupdate1/
Thu, 25 Oct 2018 13:59:24 +0000http://robgreenfield.tv/?p=12283The tiny house is still a work in progress, but it’s coming together more and more every day! The work […]

]]>The tiny house is still a work in progress, but it’s coming together more and more every day!

The work is no longer feeling like a chore. Instead I’m putting really good energy and love into each task and really enjoying it.

Plus, we just dropped from day time highs of 90 degrees to about 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Fall is finally here it seems!

I wanted to share some photos of the outside of my house, since none of you have seen it yet.

I have an outdoor kitchen, currently cooking with propane but I am getting a bio digester soon which will convert food waste into gas for cooking. I also have a solar oven that I’ll begin using more soon. Plus, I’ll make a rocket stove for cooking with wood that I collect from the neighborhood. My favorite thing about the outdoor kitchen is that it’s so easy to clean. Spill on the ground? No problem! It’ll just soak into the soil.

I have rainwater set up on Lisa’s house. That’s the big white totes. I can store 550 gallons of water there. I also have 110 gallons of rainwater storage on my tiny house in the blue barrels. I purify the rainwater with a @berkey_filters for drinking. Rainwater is also used for showering, washing dishes, and growing food. Cool rainwater showers are the life for me! No water goes down a drain to become someone else’s burden here. Instead it nourishes the land I am a steward to and grows me nourishing food.

I have an outdoor compost toilet (still need to put on walls). The finished product is called Humanure, which will be used on fruit trees to grow healthy, organic fruit. Bokashi is used as an effective microorganism to speed up the breakdown process. Plus, it smells great (the Bokashi that is, my poop of course smells like poop), but you’d be amazed at how effectively a compost toilet works. You can stick your nose right up to it and have no clue your face is a foot from poop. My guests test it, so it’s not just me!
Oh and I grow my own toilet paper! See the soft green leaves below.

That’s just a little glimpse of my outdoor living space. It’s not complete, but I wanted to give you all an update. I will put out a video tour sometime soon, once I’ve got the place in full working order!
Health and happiness to you all!
Rob

]]>A MESSAGE TO ALL MEN WHO’VE TRIED TO BOND WITH ME OVER TALKING ABOUT WOMENhttp://robgreenfield.tv/messagetomen/
Thu, 11 Oct 2018 14:08:30 +0000http://robgreenfield.tv/?p=12267This is a message to all the men who’ve tried to bond with me over talking about women or any […]

This will all just offend me and put distance between us. You won’t impress me.

From now on, if this happens, I promise to speak out instead of sitting there uncomfortably. I will not sit idly by when any man speaks in any offensive manner about women to me.

I acknowledge that from my teens to my mid-twenties I was sometimes this offensive man I’m talking about today. I deeply apologize to all women and all the good men out there who I affected, whether consciously or not. I apologize to the youth who looked up to me at the time, who may have seen these actions normalized and then internalized them. I’m sorry to everyone, even the men I spoke this way with, which made it more acceptable for them.

I have changed myself from the inside out over the last decade, and I will only continue changing for the better. This I promise.

Men, if you want to bond with me, man to man, we can talk about how much you respect your partner and women friends… How you see women as complete equals to men… How you support their passions and purpose in life… How absurd the systems of inequality are and how we can change them… How you stood up to a guy who was speaking offensively about women… How we’ve made mistakes in the past and how we are changing to be better…

This is what we can bond over as men of integrity.

This is what I can be counted on from here forward, as a human of integrity… As a role model to the young developing generation… As an example to men of all ages. As an ally in the mission for equality and justice for all women.

]]>My Addiction to Devices… And How I Remain Sane in the Digital Worldhttp://robgreenfield.tv/addiction/
Tue, 09 Oct 2018 16:01:21 +0000http://robgreenfield.tv/?p=12256It’s hard to say this publicly, but I have a problem. The problem is my relationship to my computer and […]

]]>It’s hard to say this publicly, but I have a problem. The problem is my relationship to my computer and online devices. It’s not so much the devices though, it’s the connection they create to the online world. I’ve had this problem for a while now. I’m thinking perhaps about seven years. I’m 32 years old and I look back to the last time I can remember having a consistent healthy relationship with my devices. I know in college from 2005-2009 it was pretty healthy. Social media wasn’t remotely the same back then as it is today so it was a lot easier. When I traveled the world in 2010 I remember logging in to write my blog, send emails, do research, and spend time on social media, but I’d log off for days at a time and head into the jungle. Then there’s the grey area between 2011-2013. I had a better relationship with my computer then I’m pretty sure, so I’m guessing the problem really got bad in 2013. That was when my first eco-adventure began and when I really started blogging, using social media for a bigger purpose, and getting involved in the media.

I remember riding my bike across the country on a wild adventure, yet still being glued to my cellphone reading the comments on my posts and constantly checking my email. I would pull over my bike to look at my phone quite often. Even with the beauty of the world all around me!

In 2017 I was wondering if I may actually be addicted. I would often say that I am addicted to my devices, but I wasn’t sure if I actually was, so I did some research on addiction and found out that what I have is just have extremely habitual behaviors. I don’t think it’s a true addiction. There are definitely patternsthat match up with addiction though.

I can’t stop myself from checking my devices even when I don’t want to.

I have a hard time giving myself limits. I tell myself I’m just going to check my email, and then I find myself online still an hour later.

I spend time thinking about it even when I’m not on it. I am sometimes nervous when I’m away from it for a while, anxious of the messages piling up or missing something important.

It has affected my sleep, staying up too late and missing out on sleep even though I’m exhausted, or waking up and before even taking a few breaths, going right onto the computer.

I even have snuck a look at times, not wanting others to see me on the device.

And it did affect my last partnership, as I would prioritize being on the computer over spending quality time with the one that I loved.

It sounds a lot like an addiction. However, since doing that research, I would pay attention to my actions and I believe that I am not addicted, and rather it is just an extremely habitual pattern.

When I get away from the “substance” I don’t go through any withdrawal. Instead I feel better. If I don’t have access to the devices, I don’t go searching them out and I’m often able to fully take my mind off of them. If the devices are there I can’t resist and have minimal self-control, but if it’s not an option, it’s pretty easy.

I’m not just writing this blog for me. I’m writing this to help others who are in a similar place to me. And whether we want to admit it or not, I don’t think that I am an outlier in my generation. I think what I just described is something a majority of us are experiencing. Whether most people will admit it or ever realize it is a whole different story. I hope that me admitting it can help others to let their guard down and begin the healing process if it is what they want to do.

I’m putting myself into a vulnerable situation, by admitting publicly, what I just have. It doesn’t shine the brightest light on me. It doesn’t make me look fully self-controlled or empowered. I am instead admitting that I am weak, that I use these devices as a crutch, and that I am flawed. But we all are. That is the human experience. I’m happy to say that I don’t suffer from any substance abuse and am not addicted to any drugs. I live a pretty healthy life, but my relationship with the internet is damaging my otherwise good health and my happiness as well.

With that being said, I also have observed that I have taken a lot of control over my situation and am actually far more in balance than a lot of people that I see. I don’t even have a cellphone. I got rid of it in January 2015 (read the story about why I got rid of my cell phone here). I have been cellphone free for 3.5 years and I have no intentions of going back in the near future. I probably have much more disconnected periods than most people in the USA in my generation. In fall of 2016 I went on a 75-day trip through South America with no cellphone or computer and I’ve done that multiple times. I do manage to disconnect, but again, when the devices are around I find myself stuck to them.

I also want to acknowledge some realities for me. I use social media as a tool to affect positive change in the world. I have a deep purpose in using social media. I use email to connect for a lot of the environmental projects I’m working on. In today’s culture much or our real-life interaction does stem from online interaction, especially events created on Facebook. I keep in touch with my friends around the world through my computer. The online world is central to my offline work and passion and purpose. None of that is an excuse for the imbalance that I have, but rather just facing the reality that there is a lot of good reason to be online. With that being said, I do not think that I NEED to use the internet to be highly effective. I think it’s possible to be highly successful in many fields, without using the internet exceptions for a few hours per week, or even none at all.

I acknowledge that my relationship with these devices does make me a hypocrite. I speak about prioritizing health and happiness, but these devices get in the way of that. I speak about a deep connection to nature, but my connection is often severed by my internet habits. I speak about how crazy it is that the average American watches something around four hours of TV per day. I don’t have a TV, but I do spend just as much time on my computer screen and I do get carried away watching pointless videos sometimes. I acknowledge and embrace my hypocrisy. For the last seven years, since waking up to how my actions affect the world around me, I have been slowly chipping away my hypocrisy. The reality is that almost every one of us is a hypocrite to some degree. For me it’s about drastically decreasing my level of hypocrisy and being open and honest with myself and others about the hypocrisy that still remains within me. I believe that anybody who cares deeply about the earth and humanity, in the time that we live in, will always be a hypocrite. It’s impossible to remain in our society, and not have some levels of hypocrisy. I embrace this.

With that acknowledgement of hypocrisy, I want to share with you my tips for having a balanced relationship with your computer, cellphone, and all devices connected to the internet. I will do this by sharing what works well for me and what I have found success in over the last years. I have not mastered any of this, but I am on the right path for me and have had massive breakthroughs. I want to say that I am not the perfect person to deliver this message because of my inability to perfect this practice, however maybe after all it is better for someone who is imperfect to share their experience and their successes and failures. I have worked very hard to get where I am today.

So here we go, here is what I do to live in balance with the internet:

I shut off my computer and my iPod touch at 8:00 at night. This allows my mind time to unwind before bed. Screens stimulate my mind and throw off my natural sleep patterns. I suggest turning off all devices, including TVs, at least one hour before bed. If I’m in a house where it’s an option, I shut off the internet router as well.

I don’t keep my devices next to me in bed. I try to put them away in a drawer away from the bedroom where they are completely out of sight. I don’t use my phone as an alarm clock (I only set an alarm a few times per year anyway). Instead I would recommend a simple watch or small clock to keep by the bed. I’m actually thinking about having a little lock box where I put the devices every night and then placing the key somewhere difficult to access to keep myself even more accountable. It’s all about making things less convenient. When the devices are convenient I hop right on them. Small inconveniences can deter me.

I wait to turn on any devices until at least a half hour after waking up. This allows me to be much more present with the morning and start the day off right. Instead of going right to the devices I take time to walk outside and take some deep breaths of air, stretch out, go for a swim if I’m near a body of water, or exercise. Ideally, I even prepare and have breakfast before turning on any devices.

Because I have a hard time with self-control I use an app called Freedom. This allows me to block my internet. I have it set to turn off my internet from 8:00 PM to 8:00 AM seven days a week. I have it set so that once it’s blocked there’s nothing I can do to turn it back on. Ideally I wouldn’t need an app like this, but I do, and so it is.

I use apps to block content that I don’t want to get distracted by. I stay educated on the current political situation, but let’s be honest, I also waste a lot of time on it and the current political scene can really bring darkness to my day. For this I use Trump Blocker. If I want to know what’s going on I can turn it off, but this app keeps me from being constantly bombarded. Trump is blocked from my internet completely while it’s on. I also block all news sites. The Freedom app has been the most successful for me but I also use BlockSite and StayFocusd. I have a lot of sites blocked during the day to give me that little extra deterrence but do have it set where I can turn off the block if I need to go to that site, unlike Freedom that I have set at night where the block is set and there is no turning it off while it’s on. I also block ads with Adblock Plus.

I cleaned up my social media accounts. On Instagram and Twitter, I unfollowed every account that was not serving me wisely, and I only follow a few accounts that really matter to me. I mute all the accounts that I do still follow on Instagram and Twitter. On Facebook, I unfollowed everyone. Currently if you go to “Settings” then “News Feed Preferences” you can then select “Unfollow people and groups to unhide their posts.” What I did was unfollow literally everyone. Then I could consciously choose to refollow the people and pages that I truly want in my feed. Or I can just consciously go to the page or profile I want to see. Many of us have never seen the bottom of a newsfeed because it’s never ending. Mine now says “There are no more posts to show right now.” I also use B.(FluffBusting)Purity which I use to block certain parts of Facebook, including the newsfeed. These apps can be used as a consistent, scheduled solution, or used in a moment where disconnection is needed to be forced. This is not about not consuming any content, but consciously choosing the content that I do consume.

I often leave my devices at home when I go out to a social event, exercise, run errands, etc. I don’t have an exact formula here, but I try to just leave my devices at home a lot of the time when I go out. This gives me breaks throughout the day. If you work a 9-5 job then a suggestion would be to leave your phone and computer in the office while you go to lunch each day.

If I am having a meal with someone I turn off my devices (or at least put them on silent) and give the person my attention.

I take two days per week completely off of the internet. Note: This is the one that I fail at almost every week, but I know my life would be wildly different if I managed to do. If two days per week seems crazy, then one day per week is an option, or if not a whole day, then just one-half day per week.

I turned off all notification on my devices. I see people overwhelmed with constant notifications, and I was this way in the past. But now I just check the different accounts when I want to, rather than needing instant notification at each message or comment. The only notification I get is when someone is calling me (I use google voice to receive calls on my computer). No social media notifications whatsoever.

I don’t have a cellphone, but I do still have an iPod. I de-cluttered it and deleted all the unnecessary apps. I suggest downsizing the number of unnecessary things you do on your phone. All of my apps fit onto my home screen. For the apps that I don’t use but can’t delete, I made a folder to tuck them all out of way.

I downsized my online world by deleting unnecessary accounts. This took a good amount of time but was worth the investment.

Other options include: Deleting social media entirely, getting rid of the computer and just going to the library, and getting rid of the cellphone. I did get rid of my computer when I turned thirty but after three months got another one as I found that I was not making the impact that I wanted anymore. Those are always options as well so I wanted to plant the seed for those who are into that.

Now I want to acknowledge that I am far from perfect at achieving everything that I’ve listed above. I go back and forth between doing an excellent job and falling deeply back into my extreme habitual behavior. But what I can say is that when I do succeed at following my own guidelines I am far healthier both physically and mentally and happier. And contrary to what you might first believe, that I would be less productive since I’m on the devices less, I’m actually far more productive. My creativity flows much better and I feel less blocked. I value the time I do spend online more, which results in me wasting less of the time on meaningless content and results in me being far more productive and effective with my time online. The time that I do spend online tends to be far more enjoyable. I still get the rush that the internet provides, but much less of the downer feelings that it provides. Less truly is more in every way.

Some of the things I listed are one-time actions that alleviate problems instantly and can make a lasting impact. Others are actions that have to be taken each day and where self-restrain still has to be applied. If you are trying to break free I would highly recommend taking the time to do the one-time actions upfront that will have a long-term affect. I look at it as a time investment. Sure, it might take some time now to unfollow everyone for example, but it can save hundreds of times that amount of time investment over the next few years.

We live in a difficult time and I strongly believe our imbalance with our internet connectivity is one of the leading challenges of our time. I hope that this writing and these suggestions prove to be helpful to those of you on a similar path that are looking to overcome these challenges and live a deeply connected life full of happiness, health, and freedom.

]]>Life is a Strugglehttp://robgreenfield.tv/unbalancedpost/
Mon, 08 Oct 2018 15:53:46 +0000http://robgreenfield.tv/?p=12244I am out of balance. I am frustrated. I am unhappy at points throughout the day. When I went away […]

]]>I am out of balance. I am frustrated. I am unhappy at points throughout the day.

When I went away to Wisconsin I was revitalized and rejuvenated. I swam in clean and cold bodies of water daily. I exercised and stretched. I walked slowly to where I needed to go. I prioritized eating. I took midday naps. I observed my simple surroundings. I was not overwhelmed with work. I had gained some balance back into my life. It felt really good.

I’ve been back in Orlando for just under three weeks and I’ve lost so much of that already.

I am constantly busy, feeling like I should always be trying to complete a task.

The tiny house is incomplete, and there’s always something for me to work on.
The gardens got out of control with weeds while I was gone, and they are all in need of maintenance and planting for the fall season.

There’s plenty of work for me to do on the computer as well.

I have too many projects to be able to live a slow and balanced life, and complete them all.

This results in me prioritizing productivity over living with a deeper level of health and happiness.

I don’t sleep that well in the tiny house. I don’t know if it’s the light pollution, the sky is always bright at night. I don’t know if it’s my buzzing mind, thinking of everything I want to do. I don’t know if it’s the constant noises- the airplanes and helicopters, the cars and motorcycles on the busy road nearby, the garbage trucks, recycle trucks, and street cleaners, the lawn mowers and leaf blowers, the list of disturbing noises goes on. By day I often have to flee my quiet abode because of overpowering lawn mowing nearby. Peace is hard to find in this city.

I avoid buying new items, so that often means I go months waiting to find something I need used. I finally found a comfortable pillow at a yard sale, which I haven’t had for around five months. I need a doormat to get the dirt of my constantly soil covered feet before entering my house, but I can’t find one. I don’t live very near any secondhand stores. Life would be easier in a sense if I cared less about how my actions affect the world.

I’m not making three healthy meals per day, too busy at work.

I swim in the lake, but it’s 87 degrees, which is the temperature at which the brain eating amoebas can breed. It’s not as relaxing knowing I could die that same day if one gets into my brain. There are no gators in the lake I swim in, but I still think of them as I float and stare up at the sky.

I am not in love with Orlando. There is no ocean, and there are minimal clean bodies of water that I can easily reach.

I am haunted by the injustice and inequality in the world. Right now, I’m mostly haunted by knowing that women are being abused and raped by men, and our justice system rarely does the women right. Men get away with atrocities far more often than they are held accountable. Our justice system is failing.

I try so hard to make a difference, but I have only come so far. I am discouraged by how much energy goes into shallow and meaningless content and how much more challenging it is to get meaningful and purposeful messages to spread.

I spend too much time on the computer and not enough time totally disconnected and present.

I don’t spend enough time in nature, where my soul belongs, but rarely goes deep into.

I am lacking in human physical connection. I feel lonely sometimes. Since Cheryl and I ended our partnership, I’ve had very minimal physical touch. I’m not just talking about sex, but even just platonic hugs and holding.

Life is a struggle. Life on Earth is a struggle. Human life will always be a struggle. This I am certain of. Knowing that all of us are going through the struggle of life together helps me to get by.

I acknowledge that my daily struggle is less than a majority in the world, and that I live a privileged life. I have a lot to be thankful for.

I do appreciate the sadness and the struggle. It provides the perspective that makes my happiness with life even greater.

I feel vulnerable writing this post, and part of me doesn’t want to click “submit.” But I know that it’s better to express than to hold things in. And I know that what I’m feeling is likely the majority. Staying positive on social media is preferred because then people won’t feel bad for you. I don’t like the feeling of others feeling bad for me at all, so I avoid sharing these sorts of feelings. But I think we need to be honest with each other, otherwise we face living in delusion.

I’m not looking for sympathy, or even asking you to cheer me up. I am sharing this just to share with you and also to let you know that I struggle too. Putting my feelings out into the world helps me as well.

I want you to know that I am here struggling with you. And let you know that the people around you are all probably struggling too. If you think it would serve you well, I encourage you to let your guard down.

I have a lot to feel good about. And I feel a lot of happiness. But I acknowledge and embrace the dark side of life.

I hold a large amount of love in my heart for each and every one of you reading this.

]]>Rob Greenfield’s Guide to Gardening for Beginners in Orlando, Floridahttp://robgreenfield.tv/grow/
Thu, 04 Oct 2018 22:34:37 +0000http://robgreenfield.tv/?p=12216Before launching into the guide on how to grow your own food, I want to share the resources on how […]

In December 2017, I moved to Orlando, Florida to set out on my next project- to grow and forage 100% of my food for an entire year. I had never grown any food in Florida, and in reality, had not grown much food in my life. I had a few small raised beds when I lived in San Diego where I grew some veggies, but it wasn’t much food, and I didn’t put too much effort into it. So going from that to producing 100% of my food would be no small feat. And my plan was to start the project just six months after arriving in Florida. That meant I had to learn A LOT about growing in Florida immediately and get growing right away.

I quickly began soaking in all the knowledge I could get. I have been visiting education centers like Sustainable Kashi and H.E.A.R.T., farms, home gardens and community gardeners, talking to dozens of people who grow food, attending meetings at Orlando Permaculture and the Simple Living Institute, taking plant walks with foragers like Andy Firk and Green Dean, taking workshops at places like Florida Earthskills Gathering and the Florida Herbal Conference, reading books, and researching online. It’s hard to even fathom how much more knowledgeable I am on growing food in Florida than I was when I arrived months ago. Yet I am still very much a beginner. I still very much remember being overwhelmed with dozens of questions on the basic elements of gardening such as how much should I water, how much sun should the garden have, what can I plant, when should I plant, should I plant direct in the garden or in a greenhouse, and on and on.

After less than six months I had learned much of the basics and was sitting in a more comfortable place. That comfortable place looked out onto a veggie garden that on many days overwhelmed me with having TOO MUCH food to eat. Many neighbors come to the garden to harvest food and I’m often sending guests home with armfuls of food. I’ve grown and eaten about fifty different veggie varieties now and rarely buy minimal vegetables from the store.

I feel that being in the “successful beginner” stage that I am in puts me in a position where I can help other beginners to get started. I won’t and don’t have all the answers. I will turn out to be wrong sometimes. I will still have failures. But that’s all okay. I can help you get started. And to me, that’s the most important part, getting started.

My goal with this guide is to help you get past the parts you may be nervous about. I want to empower you and activate you into growing your own food and sharing it with your community. Once your confidence level has risen and you feel like you’ve got the hang of it, I’m confident that you can figure out the rest!

This guide is geared toward beginner and first-time gardeners in the Orlando, Florida area. I would not recommend this guide if you are outside Florida. Instead I would use my Free Seed Project Gardening Guide. Florida is a pretty unique state when it comes to growing food and this guide is aimed at helping people working within the circumstances that Central Florida provides. This guide focuses on the basics of growing food and provides a general rule of thumb with ideas. It is by no means the end all be all of beginner gardening. However I do feel that reading this whole guide will be extremely helpful to those of you who are just getting started.

For those with little or no experience with gardening, first I want to say to you, that you can absolutely do this. Gardening can be very intimidating to those of us who have not done it before. But the good news is once you get the basics down, most of the rest becomes common sense. Keep in mind:

You will have some failures. Even the most experienced gardeners do. Expect failures and embrace them. Don’t let them get you down. Without failed attempts at growing food you will never create a bounty of fresh, homegrown food.

Sometimes things will die because you didn’t take care of them, but often plants will die or do poorly even if you do everything right. It’s more than okay to make mistakes. You will make many. I consider it the nutrient cycle. When I kill a plant and return it back into the soil, it will become another life. It’s all a cycle.

Growing food successfully will be a journey. Just as you would never expect to become a professional athlete overnight or to gain a college degree in a few weeks, you can’t expect to make the garden of your dreams in one season. Remembering this is likely just as important as any of the basics of sun, water, and soil. Your attitude can affect your gardening experience just as much as any of the earth’s elements.

Gardening will be work, but if done correctly it should be enjoyable and rewarding work. Sometimes it may feel like a chore, but at other times it will feel like there’s nothing in the world you’d rather be doing.

And remember, you will not have a “black thumb” as long as you follow the basics and remain dedicated to your garden and your mission to grow your own food and share it with others.

Some Top Tips and Advice

Start small to ensure that you do not get overwhelmed.

“A small, well maintained garden is better than a large, messy one.”

Plan your garden on paper before planting. This will help you to use your space more efficiently and plan out what plants will do best next to each other. You should take into account the very basics: dimensions of your garden space, the spacing that each plant needs to thrive, and the orientation of the sun.

Use a garden journal. Keep track of when you plant, your first and last harvest, when you add compost or fertilizer, important weather events, etc.

Seek local resources. One of the easiest ways to become a successful gardener is to spend time with successful gardeners in your area.The next section of this guide is on local resources. These people are far more knowledgeable and experienced than I am. I highly recommend you use these resources!

How to Get Started

Where do you get information for gardening in Central Florida?

One of my best suggestions to help you successfully grow food is to seek out local information and resources. In the past this was standard practice, but as our communities have become less connected, it is not as commonplace.

When many people think of Orlando they think of just Disney and many people assume there’s little to nothing progressive going on. But I can tell you that is far from the truth. Orlando has an amazing community and there are more ways to get involved than you can possibly imagine. In this section I’ve included a list of resources that proves just how much is going on as well as general suggestions to help you find local information.

Find other gardeners in your area. Maybe you don’t have a community garden near you, but there’s almost certainly some people that garden nearby. Keep your eyes open for gardens and then talk to the people who tend them. If you see someone in a garden, just walk up to them and tell them you are new to gardening and hoping you could learn from them. If you see a house with a garden, don’t be too shy to knock on the door. Gardeners are usually friendly and often even excited to share their knowledge, seeds, and abundance with you. Maybe you can help them with weeding their garden or do garden sitting when they go out of town, and in exchange they can give you lessons.

In April, this guy named Jean did exactly that, and I happily shared information with him to help him get started (read the story here).

Today I heard a knock on the door and I came out to quite the surprise.Jean, a total stranger, was at the door. He was…

Go to the local nursery, garden centers and botanical gardens. There’s a good chance they will either be a great resource or be able to connect you to great resources.

Leu Gardens is likely the most helpful botanical garden in Central Florida. They are a 50-acre botanical oasis designed specifically to inspire visitors to appreciate and understand plants.

There are many classes and opportunities to get involved here and entry is free on the first Monday of each month.

Find local classes, garden clubs, or meet-ups.

Orlando Permacultureis an amazing group of local permaculturists. “Orlando Permaculture exists to disseminate the knowledge of Permaculture as it applies to the urban setting of Orlando, Florida.” Their Facebook group, Orlando Permaculture, and page, Orlando Permaculture, will provide you with many opportunities to learn and get involved.
Orlando Permaculture hosts meetings on the 2nd Tuesday of every month and cooking classes and action days every month as well. Going to these monthly gatherings and meeting these people could change your direction in life.

Use the Cooperative Extension office near you, in Orlando that is The UF/ IFAS Extension. Your local Cooperative Extension office “provides” research-based advice on agriculture and horticulture that is specific to your region. The U.S. Cooperative Extension System offices are staffed by experts who can help answer your questions about pest and disease management, growing conditions, sustainable agriculture, farm management, and more. Local educational programs and publications are also offered… “Each U.S. state and territory has a state office at its land-grant university and a network of local or regional offices.” Learn more about Cooperative Extension Systems here as well as other valuable resources like this and find your nearest Cooperative Extension office here. All the help and information you can imagine is at your fingertips if you get connected to your local office.

Simple Living Institute is a group of Central Floridians who want to create a stronger community that values the environment, personal health, and a more self-sufficient lifestyle.
They host monthly meeting on the third Wednesday of each month at Leu Gardens.

Fleet Farming hosts twice per month Fleet Rides where you ride your bike and garden with their team and a group of volunteers around Audubon Park, Orlando. It’s a great learning opportunity and a great opportunity to meet others interested in growing food. They are also now in Parramore. They also offer internships.
Facebook event: www.facebook.com/events/903959096450830/

This club focuses on growing fruit trees in Central Florida. Meetings are on the 3rd Monday of the month from 7 PM to 9 PM.

Master Gardener Program through UF/ IFAS Extension “The Master Gardener program is a volunteer based program for those people interested helping others and has been serving the citizens of Orange County since 1981. It involves going through more than 70 hours of education encompassing all areas gardening. In return for this education, we ask that you pledge to donate at least 75 hours of volunteer service during the following year.”

Sustainable Kashiin Sebastian is an interactive demonstration program dedicated to teaching sustainable environmental practices. Sustainable Kashi offers a perfect site to learn, practice, and observe a functioning model of abundance. “Feed everyone” is their philosophy and permaculture is their approach. They host many events including a weekly free permaculture class every Wednesday. They also offer three-week permaculture immersions for those looking to get really involved.Terry Meer is the Permaculture Director and is an amazing resource and human being

The Florida School of Holistic Living is a 501c3 nonprofit educational organization with the mission of cultivating sustainable community by empowering individuals through philosophy-in-practice education that promotes holistic living.

Their programming includes a comprehensive curriculum of natural health and sustainable living workshops, continuing education, and professional training. In addition, they provide the Central Florida community a space to connect with our community, build vibrant health, and deepen our relationship with the earth, through our Bodhi Garden, Community Herbal Clinic, Moon Circles, the Florida Herbal Conference, and ongoing special events.

They offer many hands on classes open to everyone.

Local seed companies

Besides providing you with the seeds you need to grow food, local seed companies often offer classes and resources to help you get growing. I’ve listed the local companies I’ve found in the next section of this guide.

Green Deane (Eat the Weeds) offers plant walks around the state of Florida and is up there as one of the more knowledgeable wild foragers in the USA. His YouTube channel and website are a plethora of information.

David is an excellent resource for learning how to grow food here in Florida. He focuses on foods that grow easily and produce a large quantity of food. He has multiple helpful books and his YouTube channel and website are amazing resources

Go to your public library. Often libraries will have gardening books specific to your state or region that you can check out. Libraries aren’t just full of books though, they are often a knowledge base of local initiatives and programs. Some libraries even have seed libraries.

Search for books written about gardening in your state or region. Go to the local bookshop, library, or do an online search.

Wow! What an incredible amount of area specific information and resources you have at your fingertips! There really is no reason to go at gardening alone. Embrace the community, offer to help and volunteer, and you will find yourself feeling supported rather than alone in your yard with no clue what you are doing!

Before moving onto the “how-to” of gardening I now want to share local resources with you of where you can get what you need to start your garden!

Where to Get Seeds

Local seed companies.

I have not found a substantial number of local seed companies in Central Florida. It really seems to be lacking both here and across the nation. Upon arriving one of the first things I did was ask around for local seed companies and to my surprise most of my garden experienced friend told me that there are none. I was certain that there must be some out there, so I searched, and so far I have found three! Perhaps small seed companies aren’t the most skilled at marketing, so it’s worth digging around to find them.

I highly recommend purchasing seeds as locally as possible. Local seeds are adapted to our climate and will improve your success rates. Typically local seed companies will sell you only what grows here.

Because local seed options are limited, you are most likely going to want to purchase seeds from other seed producers as well. Here are companies that I like and have come highly recommend to me.

Sundew Gardens offers seedlings, transplants, and other gardening supplies geared toward foods that grow well in Central Florida. Their farm stand is open on Saturdays 9am-1pm for produce sales, garden tours, nursery plant sales. They also offer numerous workshops and classes every year.

(This list is not extensive and I’m sure there are many more.)

I do not recommend buying your starts at big box stores if at all possible. They are not grown for our specific region and the varieties are more likely to fail.

Where to Get Mushroom Compost

In my gardens I use mushroom compost as my soil.

You can pick up mushroom compost from Monterrey Mushroom at 5949 Sadler Ave Mt. Dora, Florida. They are open Tue, Thur, and Sat from 7 AM to 3 PM. It is $25 cash to fill a pickup truck. They dump it into the back of the truck or trailer. The phone number is 408-905-4000 and I would call ahead to confirm because this information could easily change.

This is an incredible deal compared to purchasing compost or soil in bags at the store.

If you do not have a truck to pick up mushroom compost you could find a friend with one and share the compost with them, or rent a truck or trailer. I have also found a few options for it to be delivered.

Alex (407-867-1514) picks up from Monterrey Mushroom in a 20 cubic yard truck. This is a huge dump truck, about 10-20 pickup trucks worth. He delivers for $225 to the central Orlando area. For other areas the cost may be higher. If you call him, he will let you know the price. This is an amazing deal. If you were to do 10-20 pickup truck loads it would cost you more and it would take a few days of labor. 20 cubic yards is a HUGE amount though. A great way to make this effective wouldbe to coordinate with your neighbors and friends to start gardens at the same time with you.

You can get mushroom compost delivered in much smaller quantity by Leroy of Genesis Backyard Gardens. His phone number is 321-297-2736. It is $75 for a cubic yard dropped in your front yard or driveway. For a small garden, a single pickup truck load goes a very long way.

“Yard waste collected from Orange County homes is composted and made available to County residents at no charge. Get free compost at the Orange County Landfill between 8:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. during days of operation.”

Requirements from their website:

“You must provide your own shovel and containers.

You can take up to one pickup truckload of compost.

You should call the Solid Waste Hotline to confirm compost availability.”

Tree companies create mulch when they cut down or trim trees and then grind it up. It’s easier to transport when they grind it up because it drastically reduces the space that it takes in the truck. The mulch/ chips is a waste product for them and they often have to pay to dump it to the landfill. So their problem is our solution and we are helping them at the same time. This is a great resource for us gardeners.

www.getchipdrop.com This is a site where you can get mulch for free. You simply put your information in the site and you will get mulch dropped at your location for free. Some people have had success getting it immediately, while others have waited months. I’ve had pretty good success with it. To increase the chances of being picked, you can tip up to $80. If there are a lot of people on the list, this will put you ahead of them for many of the companies.

You’ll typically get a 10+ cubic yard truck, which is a lot, so it’s a deal that can’t be beat.

If you see a tree trimming or maintenance truck in your neighborhood talk to them and ask if they will have wood chips/ mulch and if they’d drop if at your place. They will often do it for free if they have it. I’ve done this multiple times with success. It’s extremely convenient for them if you live nearby as it saves them time, gas and money not having to drive to the landfill.

Leroy of Genesis Backyard Gardens delivers for about $60-$75 per cubic yard. This is a far more expensive than getchipdrop.com or finding a truck in your neighborhood. But if you only need a cubic yard it’s a pretty good option, because the other options could be too much for you to handle.

Where to Get Cardboard

Cardboard is a waste product that is not hard to come by. Just check the dumpsters of any stores near you. You might be amazed how much cardboard is thrown in the trash dumpster instead of the recycling dumpster. By taking it out of the dumpster you are diverting it from the landfill. Second best to that is taking it out of a recycling dumpster.

I’ve had my best success with liquor stores.

Liquor store boxes seem to have far fewer, or no, tape and staples, which saves a lot of work not having to remove them all. Appliance shops are great because the boxes are huge. It’s a lot less work to work with larger boxes. Costco is great for not only boxes but also pallet slips. These are very large and have no tape or staples on them, making them the ideal cardboard to work with.

Where to Get Drip Irrigation

You can get this at any hardware store. I recommend supporting a local business such as Miller’s Hardware or you can also check a nearby Ace. Check in with your local hardware store and see if they carry it. You can also purchase online.

Hiring Garden Help

Perhaps you have the funds but not the time to start your garden. There’s definitely resources out there for you. Not only do some places offer the services to build your garden for you, but many will also maintain and teach you.

He can be hired to do the manual labor of spreading the mushroom compost all the way to building an entire garden for you. Its best to contact him and discuss your project with him.

Another suggestion I have is to post in the Orlando Permaculture Facebook group as there are numerous permaculturists in that group that do hired garden installs and maintenance.

Now finally on to the logistics of gardening itself…

When I first got to Orlando I spent countless hours researching how to grow food here. I went online and looked up each individual food that I wanted to grow and made notes on them. I didn’t know when each food could be grown so I spent many hours making a chart of when I should plant each food. I had spreadsheets with all sorts of information. It was daunting and fairly overwhelming… And then I found out that there are a bunch of people who’ve already done all that work and put it together into great books, guides, and websites for us! So I hope that you don’t have to make that same mistake, and instead can go right to the expert local material.

First and foremost I would recommend you buy Robert Bowden’s book, Florida Fruit & Vegetable Gardening: Plant, Grow, and Harvest the Best Edibles. A majority of my success has come from reading that book and using it as a reference. You could pretty much stop reading this guide now and just go get that book. It’s exceptional. One of my favorite things is the planting charts that tell you when to plant different foods, how far apart, direct vs. transplants, etc. I cannot stress enough how much I would recommend this book. This guide and information is largely based off of Robert’s 25 years of knowledge. It is focused on growing annuals (most of the stuff you would get at a grocery store like greens, carrots, tomatoes, herbs, etc.) so it’s a perfect match if that’s what you are excited about. However if you are more into permaculture and perennials, it’s not as good of a match. However, I would still recommend it as it goes through all the basic information about gardening in Florida and can help with that foundational knowledge. If you are more into permaculture and perennials than I would recommend David the Good- Totally Crazy Easy Florida Gardening as a great first read.

I am still going to go over the basics of gardening in Central Florida, even though I again urge you to get that book, as I think a quick overview could be very beneficial to new gardeners. This will not be extensive. However, it should ease your tensions if you are in a place where you don’t know where to start.

Where should you place your garden?

Where you have easy access. You want to locate your garden where you will naturally go every day. If you tuck it into an unnoticeable spot you are much more likely to neglect it. If it’s a task just to get to it, you’re more likely to get lazy and not maintain it. For example, if you walk through your front yard every day to leave your house, then your front yard is a perfect place. You’ll have your eye on it multiple times per day and are more likely to do the quick things needed like weeding and pest control when you notice them. If there’s a tucked-away side of your house where you haven’t been in weeks, then I’d recommend choosing a different place if you have the option.

Near the water source with easy access. If you make your garden a hassle to water, it’s more likely that you will neglect watering it. For example, if you’re using a hose, make sure the hose easily reaches all corners of the garden. If you’re using rainwater, make sure the rain barrel is near the garden with a clear path.

In an area with good drainage. You don’t want to plant in a low-lying spot that is always soggy and wet. This will drown your plants. Similarly, in a dry climate you don’t want to plant in the place most likely to dry out, such as the side of the house that always gets dry wind.

In one location to get started. If you are spread out all over and have to water and maintain many different places, you are more likely to forget or neglect plants. Start in just one place, and once you establish that garden, you can start spreading food everywhere that it will grow.

In full sun. The typical recommendation is to have your garden in full sun, however, in the heat of the summer in Central Florida, the sun is very hot and is one of the biggest challenges. So people play with shade in the summer. That’s a bit more advanced though. For new gardeners I would go with full sun if you can. More on this below.

Away from tree roots that can suck up all the water and nutrients leaving less for the plants in your garden. This is not a must in my opinion, but if you can then I would recommend it.

How much sun does your garden need?

You should plant your garden in a location that receives full sun. Full sun is at least six hours of direct sunlight. Any amount over eight hours is a sure bet for full sun.

You may not be accustomed to knowing how much sun an area receives. To learn this, simply take note of when the sun first hits the location in the morning and check periodically throughout the day to see when the area becomes shaded. Keep in mind that the sun changes positions in the sky. This change can be extremely drastic depending on the location. An area that gets full sun at one time of the year may only get a few hours at another time of the year.The amount of sun the location gets will typically be much greater in the summer than during the winter. Pay attention to whether the location will be shaded by trees when the sun changes position in the sky.

Plants that are grown with too little sun are less likely to produce fruit and will grow spindly and stressed, opening them up to pests. One of the simplest pest controls is making sure to plant in the right areas.

Now with that being said, Central Florida is a different ball game than much of the rest of the country. We deal with extreme heat and humidity in the summer, so too much sun is a thing here. I feel that this is more advanced gardening and I don’t know exactly what to say here, except acknowledge that it is a reality. For any beginner gardeners I would recommend starting your gardening experience off with full sun and not playing with shade as that is more challenging. With time you could experiment with that more. There are some plants that do better in partial shade too. Again, I’m not an expert here, but I feel that summary would have been really helpful for me when I got started.

What size should your garden be?

My recommendation is to start small. It can be very overwhelming if you start really big when you don’t know what you are doing. I would start with a manageable size that will produce some food for you and anyone you’re going for. With each season you can increase the garden as needed. After a couple years perhaps you’ll have your whole front yard as a garden! That’s just my advice though. If you want to make a massive garden right from the start, I’m not going to hold you back!

I would say just a few good-size kale plants can be enough to provide the kale needs for a small family. Don’t underestimate the amount of food just one tiny seed can make.

If you are feeling overwhelmed, I’d encourage you to choose jus start with five or ten foods. You can always plant more later in the season once you are feeling more confident. You are more likely to be successful if you keep the gardening manageable for you. The size of your garden can always grow as you grow in confidence and skill.

“A small, well-maintained garden is better than a large, unkempt one. There is no shame in growing one tomato plant or one cucumber plant.”

What plants to grow?

My recommendation for new gardeners is not to start by choosing the favorite foods you buy at the grocery store, but instead to focus on what grows exceptionally well in your area. This will drastically increase your chances of success and your skills at the same time. Once you have successfully grown the easier vegetables in your region, then you can try growing specialty foods that you may be eager to have in your garden. A new gardener who starts with specialty items is likely to walk away from gardening for good saying they have a “black thumb.” Rather than focus on what you can’t grow, focus on all the amazing things you can grow in your region.

Purchasing from the local seed companies and local nurseries that are listed in the resources section is a great place to start. They are likely to carry what grows well in the area. And if you tell them you’d like to purchase the varieties that are easiest to grow, you’ll give yourself a great head start. Going to your local community garden is another great way to see what’s growing well in your area.

With all that being said, do focus on growing foods that you, your family and friends will want to eat. There’s little point in growing a bunch of food that will never be eaten.

I’m not going to cover all the different foods that grow well here because there truly is an incredible amount. The resources I’ve given cover that information.

When do you plant your garden?

Timing is very important to be successful with growing food. Because of the extreme diversity of climates in the United States, people all over the country have totally different schedules. For, example northern Wisconsin is in a different climatic zone from southern Wisconsin, so the planting dates vary between the different regions within the state. While the winters in Wisconsin make it nearly impossible for most people to grow food outdoors, the gardening in central and southern Florida is at its prime. And while gardening is at its prime in most of the northern states in the summer, the heat and humidity of mid-summer makes vegetable gardening far more difficult in Florida.

Generally fall and spring are considered the best time to grow food in Central Florida. Some will say that you can’t grow food in the summer, however that is not correct. You just have to be growing the current things. This summer I managed to be eating fresh food most of the summer. Perennials and permaculture produces more of a year around food supply than annual foods.

I would say summer gardening is more advanced and also far more strenuous. I would not recommend starting of as a beginner in the summer. But once you are skilled, if you want to grow food in the summer, I would absolutely go for it. Fall gardening seems to start in September/October at the end of the summer heat. This is my first fall so I have no experience here. Spring gardening seems to go until about May. But there is overlap in all areas, and I have successfully been able to grow some food at all times in Florida so far.

These take the guess work out of when to plant and will help you incredibly.

Here is some more information that I put together as a general guide for anywhere in the USA that you could find useful. If you want to keep things simple, I’d skip over this and onto the watering section, as the planting guides listed above pretty much cover what you need.

The Garden Calendar Planting Guide from The National Gardening Association is an extremely helpful tool. Simply enter your zip code into the guide and they will provide you with information on when you should plant in your area. The guide includes both spring and fall planting dates and information. It also gives advice on whether you should directly sow seeds into the garden or sow them indoors to transplant seedlings into the garden.

As far as accuracy of this guide, they say: “For nearly all locations, we are confident in the dates. There are, however, some difficult areas of the world that don’t match up perfectly with the dates we have given. For that reason, we recommend you use this guide as a very good starting place, but don’t interpret the dates as absolutely perfect for every location.”

You can also do an internet search by typing your state name or region along with “planting schedule.” For example: “Tucson planting schedule.”

Here are a few additional tools, but they are not needed for beginner gardeners if you use the planting schedules I listed above.

Once you know your average last frost date or “frost-free date” you can use Johnny’s Seeds Seed Starting Date Calculator. This tool figures the dates when it’s safe to plant particular early crops outside based on the frost-free date that you specify.

Look up what Plant Hardiness Zone you live in. This map will help you find your zone. You can also look it up by zip code here. The “USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map is the standard by which gardeners and growers can determine which plants are most likely to thrive at a location.” “Hardiness zones are based on the average annual extreme minimum temperature during a 30-year period in the past, not the lowest temperature that has ever occurred in the past or might occur in the future. Gardeners should keep that in mind when selecting plants, especially if they choose to “push” their hardiness zone by growing plants not rated for their zone.”

Once you know your hardiness zone you can use that to decide what you should and shouldn’t plant. Take note of what zone you are in, as you are likely to use that information in your gardening as you advance.

How often and how much should you water the garden?

When you first plant your seeds and your garden is getting established, the soil should be kept moist and should not dry out. The soil should be watered every day until the plants sprout and then every day or every other day while they are establishing, whether it is a substantial rain or your hose. If you transplant veggies they also need frequent, light watering for their shallow, young roots. I would say they should be watered every day for the first 2 weeks at least. If it is really hot and dry you may have to water twice per day as the plants are establishing. There are some tips below that will help you know whether you need to water.

Water the soil where the roots are, not the plant. Soaking the plant is more likely to open it up to diseases. The water is needed in the roots, which are below the soil. If you are watering by hand then aim the hose at the soil rather than spraying it around overhead. This is extremely important in the humid summers of Central Florida.

Water in the morning, not during the heat of day or in the evening. If you water in the evening the plants are likely to be wet overnight and are more prone to diseases and fungus. By watering in the morning, the plants are able to dry out before nightfall. However, if your garden is dry in the evening and the water is needed, its better to water it than not water it.

Watering during the heat of the day is wasteful, as a large portion is burned off through evaporation and water droplets on the leaves can intensify the sun and burn the leaves.

Deep, infrequent watering is better than frequent shallow watering. By watering deeper, you encourage the roots to grow deeper where they will stay moist. Frequent shallow watering will result in roots near the surface, which creates weak plants that are more likely to dry out and need constant water.

A very easy rule of thumb for watering is to stick your finger into the soil up to the second knuckle. If the soil at your fingertip is dry, then you should water your garden. If it is moist, then you don’t need to water.

Another rule of thumb is to look at the plants and see if they are drooping. If they are drooping in the morning or evening, then they are most definitely in need of water. However, if they are drooping in the midday heat only and not in the morning or in the evening, then they may not need water.

Know your soil type. Overly sandy soil has high drainage and doesn’t hold on to moisture, meaning it will need to be watered more often. This is what I have in Audubon Park and what most yards I’ve been to have. Soil that is overly abundant in clay is heavy and difficult to work with. I don’t think there’s any clay in Central Florida. Soil that is too heavy in silt will not drain properly. There are locations I’ve visited such as Oviedo where this is an issue. Knowing your soil type will help you know how much to water.

What I grow in is straight mushroom compost. You can use this in raised beds or directly on the ground. This is my top recommendation.

Top Tips for Using Water Wisely

Mulch. Mulch reduces evaporation by protecting the soil from direct contact with the sun. It also helps to moderate soil temperatures, protect the beneficial bacteria and fungi in the soil, suppress weeds (less weeding for you!), and adds organic matter to the soil as it breaks down. Two to three inches of mulch is ample. You can use leaves from your (or your neighbor’s yard), wood chips, straw, and many other things. It is a good idea to give the garden a good watering before you lay down mulch the first time.

Amend your soil with compost. Organic matter holds moisture. Sand, on the other hand, which is not organic matter, holds very little water. Adding compost to sandy soil will increase moisture retention, meaning you have to water less. No matter if your soil has too much sand, silt, or clay, compost will help. I’ve seen yards that were nearly 100% sand turn into a dark rich soil by using mushroom compost and mulch.

Do not use above ground sprinkler systems. They are the most inefficient of all.

Grow plants in the correct season. If you grow crops when they shouldn’t be grown they are likely to need more water than in the correct season resulting in using far more water.

The most efficient watering systems are drip irrigation or ollas. Both also save a lot of time spent watering. For beginner gardeners, I highly recommend drip irrigation. That’s what I use in my main demonstration garden and it’s been highly successful.

Planting Seeds

How far apart do you plant your seeds?

Each plant has different spacing needs. This is covered in depth in the planting guides:

One is to plant small seeds 1/8 to 1/4-inch-deep and larger seeds ½ to 1 inch deep.

The other is to plant seeds as deep as the seed’s diameter.

Basically, they are not planted very deep at all.

Seed packs will have this information on them and it’s also covered in the planting guides above.

Direct sowing seeds vs. transplanting

Both directly sowing seeds into your garden or planting seeds indoors and then transplanting the seedlings outdoors have their pros and cons. Some seeds prefer to be directly sown into the garden and typically should not be grown indoors to transplant seedlings into the garden. This typically includes beans, peas, and squash.

The main benefit of transplants is that you can get a head start on the growing season by starting them in a controlled environment where they are protected from weather. It also allows you to have them in a controlled environment away from things that would eat them while they are delicate and small. The downside is that the plants can undergo transplant shock, get root bound in the container and it takes more materials and can take more time than direct sowing.

You don’t NEED to start any seeds indoors or have a greenhouse to have a successful garden. Just know that. You can direct plant most any seeds and you can just not plant any that are strongly suggested to be transplanted.

But the real good news is that the planting guides I’ve listed above tell you exactly what to do.

I am not covering this section in depth, but I do have a few tips and things to share with you.

-Keep on top of your garden by walking through it and observing it every day. If you see a problem beginning, deal with it right away. This can work wonders. If you see caterpillars eating a few plants for example, hand pick them and kill them. This can prevent major outbreaks.

-Plant at the right time of year when plants will do their best.

-Put your garden in full sun.

-Keep your plants healthy and water them when they need water.

-Plant high quality organic seeds

-Look into companion planting

-One of the most common organic pesticides used in Orlando is Neem Oil. It’s a single ingredient and quite safe. There are a few other organic pesticides like this and many other tricks. It’s not something I have much experience with though. I’ve never used a pesticide.

I have primarily grown food in yards with plenty of space, so I don’t have a lot of experience to share with you on this subject yet. It’s a question that is frequently asked though, so I want to give some information.

This is the first yard that I was offered to grow food on. As you can see it was just a lawn.

This is that same yard about four months later.

Here is my simple process for turning a yard into a garden. I learned with from Fleet Farming and others in the area. I did not try to reinvent the wheel in Orlando, because the wheel had already been invented. This is at 1304 Tanager Dr. Orlando, Fl 32803 if you want to check it out. This is also where I teach free gardening classes.

Lay down cardboard over the entire area that will be a garden. One layer is fine, but the a few layers is better. It’s important to overlap the cardboard at all edges. The cardboard is serving to kill the grass. By blocking the light to the grass, it will die. You don’t have to do anything else to the grass to kill it.

Lay down mulch over the entire area that you put down cardboard. I would recommend a thick layer of at least 6″. You can get away with 3″ and you can do as much as 12″. I did closer to 12″ in this garden. The mulch serves many purposes. It suppresses the grass and blocks light to it, killing it. (Note: you do not need to do cardboard if you do a very thick layer of mulch, but I’d still highly recommend it.) Mulch holds in water and water is life, so that is key. By holding water it creates an environment for life to exist. There’s a saying that goes, “How do you know if you’ve got good soil? If half of it walks away while you’re holding it in your hand.” Mulch also builds soil. Mulch breaks down over time and can turn a sandy yard into a rich soil over a period of a couple years. I could go on about mulch for quite a while, but the important thing is just that you use it.

Pull back the mulch where you will place your rows of soil. A garden rake or a hoe will get the job done. Lay down mushroom compost. This is your soil. The whole sides of your growing rows will be covered by mulch. This will help to conserve water. By putting the soil directly onto the ground/cardboard the roots of the plants will spread deep into the ground. You can also put the mushroom compost down directly on top of your mulch. That’s what I did in this garden and it worked, however all the experienced gardeners have said it’s better to do it the first way I explained. If the mushroom compost is hot and steaming when you get it, which it will be if you get it directly from the mushroom farm, then you should wait a good week before planting in it.

Plant seeds or transplants directly into the mushroom compost.

It really is as simple as that. This method has worked extremely well for me. It may or may not work for you. I can’t guarantee anything. I use drip irrigation to water the plants, but when they are establishing I water by hand with a hose for the first couple of weeks to get them established. I have not used a single pesticide yet, even an organic one. I have had insects kill off some of my crop, but it’s been okay. I just expect for some of my crops to fail.

To plan how much mulch and mushroom compost you’ll need, I’m sharing these formulas and a calculator:

]]>How I built my tiny house for under $1,500 with 100% repurposed materials and near zero wastehttp://robgreenfield.tv/tinyhousebuild/
Wed, 03 Oct 2018 20:02:32 +0000http://robgreenfield.tv/?p=12207How I built my tiny house for under $1,500 using nearly 100% repurposed materials while creating only 30 pounds of trash. The […]

]]>How I built my tiny house for under $1,500 using nearly 100% repurposed materials while creating only 30 pounds of trash.

The tiny house movement has caught on like a wildfire over the last decade, and there’s a lot of positivity coming out if it. I’m very excited about tiny houses and see them as a very useful tool in working towards a more sustainable and just world. I lived in a 50 sq. ft. tiny house in San Diego in 2015-2016. I’ve produced videos about tiny houses to spread the movement through my social media. I’ve visited tiny houses around the United States and in a few countries, and I have even been to a tiny house festival. I’ve made friends with the creators of some of the biggest tiny house pages. Now, I’ve built my first tiny house. Needless to say, I really love tiny houses and am very excited about them. And I’ve become fairly knowledgeable on them.

Through all of this, I’m confident that tiny houses are not the solution to all of problems, nor is the movement without its imperfections.

I often find tiny houses to be very inaccessible. At the festival I went to in Oregon there were plenty of houses in the $40,000-$80,000 range and even some as costly as $150,000. Don’t get me wrong, they were amazing tiny houses, but I know many people just find that idea to be totally absurd. There’s no way I could afford a tiny house that expensive, even if I wanted one, which I don’t. I love simple living, and living far more simply than most tiny house dwellers even.

There is a whole spectrum of tiny houses, and my goal is to show the opposite end of the spectrum from the super expensive, high tech, tiny houses that are inaccessible to so many people.

I built my tiny house with the aim to be an example of what can be done with very little money, causing minimal environmental destruction, and keeping it super simple. That also means being able to build in a very short period of time and with minimal skills. With that being said, this tiny house is exceptionally small and exceptionally simple, even for a tiny house. This won’t be a match for nearly everyone, but that’s exactly the point. I’m here to be of service to those who have similar goals as I do when it comes to living accommodations, to live simply, sustainably, and with very minimal money.

The primary purpose of this article is to cover the process of building my tiny house, including the sustainability aspect of building it. Future writings will go into more depth on living in it.

Building the Tiny House- The Pre-Build

I mentioned that I lived in a tiny house in San Diego in 2015 and 2016, but that house I bought on craigslist for $950. I didn’t build it and did only minor, mostly aesthetic, work on it. This is my first time building a tiny house. I have very minimal building experience. I wouldn’t go as far as to call myself a building dummy, as I can build very basic things, but nothing even close to a tiny house. I have a hard time cutting straight lines and correct angles. It’s just a place where I tend to lack, and in building a tiny house like mine, you generally need to have that stuff down. (Note: in natural building there are plenty of ways to build without straight lines.)

When I set out on the mission to build my tiny house in late 2017, I just had a good general idea of what I wanted to do, but no experience to back it up. Of all the stages of building the tiny house, this may have been the most time consuming. Wrapping my head around it and trying to figure out what to do was a bit daunting. What materials I’d need, what tools, skills, etc. all were unknowns at the time. Having minimal clue what I was doing and access to hundreds of thousands of articles and videos was also pretty frustrating at times. I would often find myself overwhelmed with too much information.

But I continued learning and the more I learned the closer I got to being able to build it. But equally or more importantly, my plan was never to do it on my own. My plan was always to do it with community, with the help of skilled people.

Once I decided that I was going to build it (which wasn’t until July of 2018 after a lot of postponing) I reached out to the community. One of my main goals in life is to live in the service of others. I do this because I find a very deep purpose in giving to others. It brings me great happiness. I may appear altruistic to many, but in reality, I am not truly altruistic. One great benefit of living in the service of others is that they want to return the service to you. This is the foundation of a sharing economy or a gift economy. We don’t need money to meet each other’s needs. Humans can do that with our skills, our resources, our time, and our love and caring for one another. That is the world I want to live, so that is the world I have been creating around me. When I put it out there that I was going to build my tiny house, I was delighted with the response. I organized volunteer days and people showed up.

People showing up wasn’t necessarily altruistic either. Most of the people showed up for the purpose to help, but also because they were very interested in tiny houses, simple living, and sustainable living. They came to learn. They also came to be with a community of likeminded people. My goal wasn’t just to have these volunteers build my tiny house with me, but to give them a worthwhile experience where they’d learn skills and meet new friends that could add value to their life. I’m pretty sure that’s what happened on our volunteer days. New friends were made, knowledge was gained, and inspiration was spread.

Designing the house

I decided on this design based on many factors with the main factors being environmental impact, cost, climate, location, ease of building, and simplicity. Each of those factors played into each other to result in this design.

Environmental impact, climate, and location- The environmental impact of the tiny house was my number one consideration. I thought about natural building methods such as adobe, but there were multiple reasons why that didn’t line up. In order to blend into the neighborhood, I decided to build a tiny house that looks very similar to the sheds that many people have in their backyard. Tiny houses are not technically legal here as far as I can tell, so that’s why blending in is a good call. That leaves out most natural building methods such as adobe, earth ships, and straw bale homes. They are unique and really stick out, whereas mine is mistakable as a shed. Location is also key, as those design methods are not lined up with this climate. So, the next best thing for me was to build it out of nearly 100% repurposed materials, that way nothing new was being created in order for me to build the house. I consider that form of building to have a pretty minimal environmental impact. A tiny house has a drastically smaller environmental footprint to build than a large house, because it is that much less materials, transport, electricity used, and trash created. That’s one of the main reasons I chose to have a tiny house in general vs. a larger house.

Cost- I live extremely simply, with a net worth of just a few thousand dollars, and with a maximum income of around $10,000. So, building something expensive is just not an option. I have no debt, no credit cards, no loans, and don’t even have a personal bank account. I have no intentions of going into debt, including taking out a mortgage. That means I build within my means. This tiny house is within my means.

Ease of build- I chose this style of house because it is about as simple to build as can be. It’s the most basic of construction skills for someone who knows what they are doing. It takes no special tools. It is not complicated.

Simplicity- I like to keep things pretty simple. This design has what I need and does not have all the things I don’t. It’s the living situation that I want.

I put windows/a door on all sides of the house to create a strong cross breeze and keep the house as cool as possible. So far that’s been working great.

Note: I do consider this tiny house to be “environmentally friendly” however that is just compared to most forms of building. The reality is that most of the building materials are at least somewhat toxic. Almost all, or all, plywood has toxic chemicals such as formaldehyde and toxic glues in them. It will biodegrade, but it will release these chemicals into our soil at the same time. The plywood is treated with chemicals. The stain, even if low VOC, is toxic. It is NOT environmentally friendly. It is just far less destructive than most modern houses.

If you are not aware of off gassing I would highly recommend looking into it. Our houses can be very toxic environments, from our carpets and insulation, to our pillows and blankets, to our paints and stains.

To deal with that I built the house with excellent natural ventilation and have left all of the windows and doors open for the last few months. There is a constant breeze of fresh air going through the house, so I highly doubt that I have breathed in much off gassing.

Materials

I managed to build the house out of nearly 100% repurposed materials. The only things that weren’t repurposed were the stain and some of the nails and screws. They were not brand new though so it’s a bit of a grey area (explained below). However, it is totally safe to say the house is 99% repurposed materials by weight and 99% repurposed materials by cost. Not perfect, but plenty good for me!

One word to the wise, building with repurposed materials drastically increased the amount of time it took to build the tiny house. If I were to have built with all new materials I could have carefully planned out my list and done just one or two trips to the store with a truck. Instead I spent many days searching the internet. This was very time consuming. I had someone, Kendal Wilde, who’d been following me online volunteer to do a semi-internship with me and help me find materials. She spent about 25 hours on this. A lot of that time was consumed by researching materials though, as we didn’t really know what we needed and were constantly re-figuring things out that we thought we had already figured out. Neither of us knew construction terminology, such as the many types of plywood, etc. Just finding the materials was very time consuming. On top of that there was picking up different items in all different directions of town and organizing drop-offs.

Using repurposed materials at least doubled the length of time of the entire process, but it could have increased the time by over five times.

I wouldn’t have felt right buying used materials though. It was the right thing for me to do.

I’m going to list out the materials as well as where I got them for you here. DISCLAIMER- I’m not doing this to give you a blueprint or plan to build off of. As I’ve explained, I am not a builder and I can’t build a tiny house on my own. Therefore, it doesn’t make sense for me to go into the details of how to build a house. Instead, I am here to provide the basic information to help you, as well as some inspiration through my example. I won’t go into the details of how to build a house, but I am going to share almost all of the materials that I used. I am doing this to give you a really solid idea of how to get repurposed materials.

Websites to find used materials locally: Craigslist, Offerup, letgo, NextDoorFreecycle, Freegle,Buy Nothing groups on Facebook, Facebook Marketplace, and local yard sale groups on Facebook. There are a lot more websites and apps out there so make sure you check your local area. These are just some of the sites that I know of. Besides searching the posts on here, I would recommend making a post of your own explaining what you are doing and the materials you are looking for. There are a lot of people who search those sites looking to sell things or get rid of things.

Websites to find used materials online: Ebay is a site that I’ve used a lot and I’m sure there are other ones out there. This is a great resource for buying light weight and easy to ship items.

Habitat for Humanity Restore. There is a network of these all across the country and many of them stock an incredible amount of used materials for building.

Asking friends. People have a lot of stuff sitting around. Check with your friends who have garages full of stuff and see if they have things sitting around that they don’t want.

Go out on garbage nights. Keep your eye open in your neighborhood and you’ll likely see great materials being thrown out every week. Go out the night before garbage day and collect materials that are destined for the dump.

Dumpster diving. Find places where good quality materials are being thrown away.

Thrift stores.

Flea markets.

Discount outlet stores that stock bulk leftover construction materials. Big Deal Discount Outlet is a store that I used in Orlando.

Home improvement/building stores waste. I’ve been told that stores like Home Depot and Lowe’s put out their wood scraps for people to take for free. I’ve never looked into it myself, but multiple people have told me that they have success with it.

Construction sites. You could get into construction dumpsters (at your own risk, this can be considered trespassing) and find an incredible amount of perfectly good, but tossed out materials. You could also ask some of the construction workers to set stuff aside rather than throw it in the dumpster.

Construction companies. Call up construction companies and tell them what you are doing. Perhaps they will like your story and be happy to set aside the materials that they would have otherwise thrown out. Or perhaps they are sick and tired of making so much waste and will be excited to have a better outlet.

These are just the resources that I know of, and I’ve only built one house, so I’m sure there must be more resources out there. The best resource is a brain that can implement problem-solving skills. With a resourceful mindset and dedication, you can most likely find the materials that you need.

If you are trying to build with mostly repurposed materials, my recommendation would not necessarily to go for 100%. 80% or 90% may be fairly easy to achieve, but it’s going for that last 20% or 10% that can be extremely difficult. I would suggest trying to get all the large items repurposed and to take it easy on yourself for the small stuff. That way you do a really great job and don’t over exert yourself with that last little bit. I’ve found it’s better to do a really good job with most things than a perfect job with some things and not leave time for other areas of life that could use improvement. But if you want to go for 100% definitely don’t let my opinion hold you back!

Where My Materials Came From

2×4’s and 2×3’s, 1×4’s, 1×6’s- leftover from a build site that I found on an online website. They were unused and would have been thrown away if one of the contractors hadn’t rescued them.

Plywood- Same as the 2×4’s

Windows- craigslist

Doors- Habitat for Humanity

Metal roofing- Leftover from someone’s roofing project. Found them through doing a shout out on social media.

Flooring- Someone’s house flooded so they were getting rid of their flooring. It was in nearly perfect shape. I found it on an online website.

Exterior siding- We pulled apart fences and used the panels. I found the panels by posting on online websites. Most of them were fence panels sitting in people’s backyards, leftover from building a fence.

Pallets- Many pallets are used once and thrown away. This means there are a lot of pallets out there. The key is to find heat treated ones. They will have “HT” imprinted onto them. These are not chemically treated. We found these behind stores. We always asked if the store was getting rid of them if it wasn’t totally obvious.

Foundation cinder blocks- Craigslist, leftover from a build site.

Foundation pallets- These pallets were sitting outside of an apartment complex for many months and my friend Evi told me about them. I called the company to ask if I could have them, and they said yes. They are heat treated and heavy duty. They were used for shipping granite countertop from overseas.

Housewrap- leftover at a massive construction site. Found them on craigslist.

Drip edge- My friend Joe brought some that he had sitting in his garage for fifteen years.

Stain- I had a very hard time finding used cans of stain. I’m sure they were out there, but in the short time I had I didn’t find any. Repurposed Paint is very easy to find because paint shops sell all the discolored paints at super discounted prices. What isn’t sold I’m assuming is thrown away or “recycled”. But stain doesn’t have color mixing so it’s harder to find. What I did find is a paint shop that had a color that wasn’t selling. They were $60-$100 cans and they sold them to me for $3. So, these weren’t technically waste or repurposed, but pretty close.

Hurricane straps- Leftover at a construction site found on craigslist.

Wood that I used as trim- Same as hurricane straps above.

Roof underlayment- I got this from a discount outlet that stocks bulk leftover construction materials.

Silicone sealant- Habitat for Humanity

Radiant barrier- ebay

Roofing screws- ebay

Nails, staples, and screws- Some of these I got at Habitat for Humanity, but most of them were brought by my friend Matt. He said he had tons of extra and was happy to use them. I’m not sure if afterwards he had to go out and buy a bunch to replace what he used with me. If he did that then I would not consider this repurposed. This is the other grey area of whether it’s 100% repurposed.

Those are all the materials that I can think of, but there are probably a few small things left out of this list.

What the Tiny House is Built out of From Bottom to Top:

Foundation- Cinder blocks for the foundation with four 10’ long x 32” pallets set side by side on top of them. They are heat treated and heavy duty.

Floor- Tongue and groove plywood for the subfloor, nailed on top of the pallets. Engineered hardwood flooring on the interior. I was going to use hardwood floors but was advised against it in the heat of Florida, without climate control.

Walls- 2×4’s and OSB plywood as the structure.

“Insulation”- Radiant barrier. This reflects the sun, keeping the house cooler.

Exterior siding- Fence panels.

Interior siding- Planning to use pallets.

Roof- 2×4’s and OSB plywood as the structure, roofing underlayment laid on top of that, and metal roofing on top of that.

I hope that gives you a very solid idea of how I sourced used materials and how you can too. But definitely don’t stop there. Every locality is different. And there are many, many different ways to build a tiny house. This is just my example, and it is one of many examples out there.

Tools

This is a list of the majority of the tools that we used. I’m sure that there are a few tools that we used that I don’t remember, especially if Matt used something from his tool bag that I didn’t really see.

Power tools: circular saw, power drills, nail gun and air compressor, staple gun, and sawzall

There is a statistic out there that the average power drill gets used for only half an hour in its lifetime. That may be an exaggeration, but the point is clear. For 99% of the life of most tools, they are sitting and not being used. I have no desire to contribute to this misuse of resources. Instead it makes sense to share tools with people who already have them. All the tools that we used were borrowed from friends in the neighborhood and brought by people who helped. If that had not worked then I would have looked into renting tools as that allows for the shared usage of resources. Another option would have been to buy tools used and then sell them afterwards. This takes more time but is a way to use tools without any new items needing to be made for you.

Building the Tiny House- The Build

Each person brought their own skills. Some people were highly skilled with construction and were able to take on the skilled building. Many of the people had little to no construction skills, so they took on the simpler tasks such as pulling apart pallets to salvage the wood, putting up siding, staining, etc. I am so grateful that my friend Matt Jones came out and dedicated his whole weekend to working on the tiny house. He is carpenter who builds both as a profession and a passion. At first, I was hesitant to ask him to help for the whole weekend, knowing that he works on houses 9-5 Monday-Friday. I thought he might be tired out and bored of building. And after all, it was his wife, and my friend, Sierra Jones who got him involved in the first place. But when I texted him and asked how late he’d want to build to, he responded something to the effect of, “As late as you can go.” It turns out that he just loves to build, and Sierra said he does it seven days/week. This was another example of mutual benefit. This was a new experience for him and he really enjoyed working on it and working with a group of people.

I set the first volunteer weekend as a 3-day weekend, Saturday-Monday. Each day about 10 people came out. My plan was to finish almost the whole house that weekend. We did not do that. It was much more work than I expected. If I’d kept the house even more extremely simple and built it with all new materials from the store I think we’d have managed. But building with repurposed materials is a whole different ball game. More on that later though… The second weekend was a 2-day weekend and at the end of the weekend we had built the majority of the house. I was able to move in within two weeks of starting the build!

In total about 40 volunteers helped out and the total hours that have gone into the house so far is 225. About 75 of that was me, and 150 of that was volunteers.

End of day one with the volunteers:

Day one of the tiny house build and I am overjoyed and relieved at how well it is coming together!I am so incredibly…

At this point the total cost of materials was $903. The house is not complete, but most of the materials I need to complete the project are left over from the materials I’ve already purchased. The cost of materials shouldn’t rise by more than a few hundred dollars. I also paid a friend with a truck to help me pick up materials one day. That was $165 including gas. Lastly, I also bought food for volunteers and that totaled $80.

That brings the grand total of the tiny house build up to $1,138. My plan is to keep the total cost under $1,500.

I only started collecting materials for the build about two weeks before I was scheduled to start building. Because of this I was in somewhat of a rush to find materials. If I were to have collected materials a little at a time for months or even up to a year, it is likely I could have dropped the cost down drastically. A lot of what I purchased was not necessarily the best deal, but I had to take what I could get because I wasn’t going to take months to build it.

If you are trying to build a tiny house for a very tiny amount of money or even for free, then one of your best friends is time. The more flexible you are, the easier of a time you will have finding free materials and really good deals.

The Sustainability of Building Tiny

How I managed to create just 30 pounds of trash in building my tiny house.

Waste

I strive to create very little garbage in my life. The average American creates 4.5 pounds of trash per day, or about 165 pounds per month. It’s pretty normal for me to create just a few pounds in a month, or about 80 times less than the average American. It’s fairly easy in my day to day life to create near zero waste, because I’ve been doing it for a while and I have the practices down. Building a tiny house was a whole new challenge though. I absolutely did not want to fill up a dumpster in the process of building my tiny house, so this was a central part of everything I did.
The main way that I knew I could prevent creating garbage was by using materials that I salvaged from waste in the first place. That way any excess materials, shavings, or cuttings would not be garbage that I created, since it already was garbage in the first place. For example, if I saved thirty pieces of 2×4’s from the garbage, and then put two of them back, then that would not be trash I created. I think about it like this, if I take 100 pounds of wood out of a dumpster, use 90 of it and put 10 pounds back, I did not create 10 pounds of trash. I actually prevented 90 from going to the landfill. That’s trash negative. Even with that being the case, my goal was to not put any of those materials back into the garbage, but I wouldn’t be too stressed if I did.

During the build I became extremely overwhelmed. I was working with all these repurposed materials, which resulted in me collecting way more than I needed to make sure I’d have enough. When working with repurposed materials it can be challenging to know exactly how much you’ll need. With pallets for example you can estimate how many you’ll need, but often pallets will have a lot of broken pieces, making it very difficult to make an accurate estimate.

Back to my near breakdown moment though… The yard was littered with materials in the process of being taken down, and after the volunteer weekends I was left with huge amounts of materials to deal with. I’m naturally a minimalist and have a real hard time with clutter, so this was extremely stressful for me. Being in the peak of the rainy season it was also a worry to leave everything out in the case of a heavy downpour. Because it was my house, I was having a hard time stepping away from it. I just couldn’t get my mind off of the clutter and the mess and overabundance of materials I had in front of me. Of course, what I really needed to do was to step away, relax, eat healthy food, immerse in nature, and take care of my body. But the busy-body type person that I am wasn’t letting myself do that. So, the only thing I could manage was to deal with the mess I made.

End of day 3 of building my tiny house and I just feel so overwhelmed and beat down.It’s turning out to be a lot more…

I had to remind myself that most of these materials were either trash or headed to the dumpster when I got them. I wasn’t responsible for utilizing every single piece. I’d already done a great job by using so much repurposed materials. That did help me relax some. Ultimately what helped me the most though was getting rid of all the excess. It wasn’t until it was gone and the area was clean and clear that I was really able to relax. So how did I get rid of the materials without making trash? Here was my formula:

I went on Craigslist and made a posting with pictures of the used materials that I had. I was blown away at how quickly responses started coming in and how many there were. Within hours, a pretty large portion of the materials were picked up.

What I did with a lot of it was put it on the curb and wrote a title of “Curb Alert: Building Materials” I sat back and watched people take the stuff for their own projects. One important note is that I didn’t put the stuff out when the garbage truck would be coming. Whatever was left on garbage day, I brought it in before the truck came, and then put it back out after I was clear from the garbage trucks.

I also had my friend Katie Soo come and pick up a bunch of the small scraps to bring to her art school. They will paint on the wood pieces and use some of it for sculptures, among other things.

Awesome news!All that worry I had about creating a ton of trash from building my tiny house was for nothing!So far, I'…

After everything I managed to create a mere 30 pounds (14 kg) of trash. I read a statistic that to build an average house in the USA, 8,000 pounds of trash is created. That is many dumpsters full. That is over 250 times more trash than I created in building this house.

The tiny house is in the completion stages and what you see in my hands is all the trash I have created so far. A mere…

Some of my happiest moments of the whole build were talking to the people who came to get my excess materials. I met so many people that I wouldn’t have otherwise met, from different neighborhoods and backgrounds, and the meetings were truly meaningful for all of us.

Meet Kim!My heart is buzzing after meeting her!I listed some excess plywood as a giveaway on Craigslist and she…

Building my tiny house was both exciting and overwhelming. I had some of my happiest moments in recent time and some major crashes. It was emotional and mentally trying. Building a tiny house is a commitment and a real challenge. If you are looking to build a tiny house I would encourage you to not take it lightly, especially if you are using repurposed materials. But at the same time, have fun! It is an incredibly rewarding and enjoyable process with the right mindset.

I hope that this guide to building my tiny house has been helpful to those of you reading this who are interested in building your own tiny house. I want to stress again that every situation is different and based on many factors. This is just the scenario that worked for me. I hope you’ll use the tips from here that would work well for you and just remember to create what is right for you, in the place you are in, in the time you are in and in your own shoes (or no shoes if you are barefoot). If you have any questions that I did not address, please ask them in the comments section below. I will try to answer most questions and add them to the FAQ.

A special thanks to everyone who’s helped make this tiny house a reality:

Frequently Asked Questions / FAQ

I’ve had hundreds of people asking questions about my tiny house, and most of them have arisen due to me creating a video that showed my progress, not the finished setup. Usually, I wait to show my projects until they are finished, so that most questions are answered already, but in this case I wanted to share the progress with the people who follow me online. I didn’t expect the tiny house build video to be viewed by very many people, but it’s reached beyond my audience. The video was really just intended for people who follow me more closely and know what I’m all about. Over the next month I will produce another video, and this will give a tour of the whole space, inside and outside of the tiny house. Below I’ve answered all the questions that I saw commonly asked in the comments on social media and my website.

What’s the deal with codes and permits? Is your tiny house “legal”?

There seem to be very few places across the United States where tiny houses are completely legal. In many places you can make a tiny house legal by putting it on wheels, so that it qualifies as a camper, but still in many places you aren’t allowed to use a camper on property in the city. In many places there are minimal building sizes, requiring people to build much larger than a tiny house. In many places the long list of expensive codes defeats the cost-effectiveness of a tiny house. There are a whole lot of ways that the government discourages tiny houses.

I am somewhat knowledgeable on the legality of tiny houses, but I am not an expert in the slightest. Many localities are quite different from others, so even if someone is generally knowledgeable on tiny house building and living codes, it’s still difficult to keep on top of the many different rules in different places.

My tiny house is not technically within city code here in Orlando. I will explain to you what I’ve done. Keep in mind this is just my scenario, and this works well for me.

Backyard sheds are EXTREMELY common here in Orlando. There are thousands and thousands of them. So, what I did was design my tiny house within city shed codes. This includes things like setback from property line, size, and structural codes. So the structure that is my tiny house is indeed within code. But technically a person is not allowed to sleep in a shed, so me sleeping in it is not in adherence to code.

Because I live extremely simply, this works for me. I did not put plumbing or electricity in the house. This makes it far less expensive and far easier to fall within code. I designed my house to be a shed so that it would blend in to the neighborhood. There are sheds in every other yard, so it doesn’t stand out at all. So, for all those YouTube comments calling my tiny house a shed… I say thank you! That’s what I was going for. When I leave Orlando, and no longer live in the tiny house, it will fall completely within code as a shed.

One reason that a lot of these codes are created is because neighborhoods are designed to be home to a certain number of people. Parking space is one factor when designing a neighborhood. I don’t have or drive a car, so I don’t have any impact in this manner. The sewage systems are designed to handle water based on a certain number of people. I don’t put any water down the sewer. I have a compost toilet, use primarily rainwater, and all of my water is used as greywater to water the plants on site. Again, I have no impact on the infrastructure there. I use a very negligible amount of electricity when it comes to grid planning. I am deeply thoughtful when it comes to how my impacts affect my surroundings. I aim to not only have no drain on my community, but rather have an extremely positive impact. I have planted 43 Community Fruit Trees in my neighborhood, built five gardens for single parent families, and teach free gardening classes. I believe myself to be a positive asset to the community.

Some people think that my tiny house could decrease property values. I think it’s clear that it won’t decrease any property values. By planting fruit trees and working to beautify the community, I would expect my presence to be more likely to increase property value than decrease value.

My life goes beyond city and government codes. Not because I’m selfish and don’t care though. Because I believe that many codes are extremely limiting in that it makes a rigid structure for society when we are an extremely diverse race with different goals and aspirations. Ideal codes to me would be able to look at individual scenario, rather than make blanket statements that often result in the defiance of common sense. The homeless epidemic in the United States is in part a flaw of our code systems. We have the highest population of people who live on the streets in a Western nation. I respect many government codes, but I will never blindly follow them, even if that results in me being taken to jail or being given fines sometimes (to date this has not happened).

I’m following my ethics and morals, harming no one, and living in the service of many. I look to Earth Codes and Codes of Humanity before I look to codes most likely created by a group of privileged white men. I think it is a human right to build a little nest and I will stand by this strongly through my actions.

Whose land am I living on, and how did I find it?

All throughout the United States there are thousands of backyards sitting unused. All throughout the United States there are people who would like to utilize their space better. So that’s the gap that I stepped into.
When I moved to Orlando, I wrote a blog titled Looking for a Backyard for Our Tiny House in Orlando. I spread it through the internet and talked to people in the community. My goal was to find someon interested in living a more sustainable life that I could be of service to. The idea was that I could improve the person’s land and teach them about sustainable and simple living in exchange for being able to build my tiny home on their land.

I had at least a dozen people offer me a space, but most of them were not in the neighborhood that I wanted to live in. It took a few months to find the perfect match, someone with a secluded backyard, right in the neighborhood I wanted to live in, and that could really benefit from my presence. I ended up meeting a local woman at an herbal conference who turned out to be a great match.

Did I buy the land?

No, see above. I don’t ever intend to “own” land. Land “ownership” is delusional to me. We can’t own the land. We are impermanent and will be here for a short period of time. Nobody or nothing can own the land. That’s looking at the much bigger picture. From a much smaller picture, here’s an example. If you fall ill and have no way of paying property taxes for a few years, that land is no longer yours. That’s definitely not true ownership. A vast majority of people who “own” land have a mortgage that they will never pay off, meaning they have a partial ownership at best.

Do I pay rent?

Yes, but it is not paid in monetary form. Instead of exchanging money we are exchanging resources and skills. I have turned her whole front yard into a garden. It was once a lawn and is now a bountiful garden that produces food and provides habitat for important creatures such as bees and butterflies. Since she is older, I am also able to be of service by doing heavy lifting tasks and some maintenance around the house and yard. After I leave, the tiny house will be hers as well. All improvements I make to her space will be hers for the years to come. I hope she will use the tiny house to host people from out of town that will continue to help her with the gardens and add value to her life. It’s been a lifetime goal of hers to homestead, and that’s the dream that I’m helping her achieve.

Alice Walker is known for saying, “Activism is my rent for living on the planet.” This is more along the lines of my thinking.

How did I decide on the design of the house?

See the pre-build section of this blog.

What about the toilet and kitchen?

I have an outdoor kitchen and compost toilet. They are both works in progress, but are near completion. Here is a blog that I wrote with photos of the kitchen and compost toilet:

I have a compost toilet, which means no plumbing is needed for a toilet. I do use a hose on the property for water, but all greywater is used to water the plants, so no sewage is needed for that. My outdoor kitchen is set up with rainwater harvesting, and my plan is to use almost exclusively rainwater in it. The hose from the property is a backup. As I was getting everything setup, I used the hose primarily.

For electricity, I have an extension cord running to my house. On that extension cord, I have three outlets. The idea of having just three outlets is that it drastically limits the amount of electricity that I can use. An average house has dozens of plugs, with likely over 100 electronic items. I have just a handful of electronic items. My original plan was to be off the grid and power myself at home 100% with solar. But after I did the math, I realized it didn’t make too much sense. I am only going to use about $250 worth of electricity in the two years that I’m here. The solar system to create that amount of electricity would have cost thousands of dollars. And I believe the environmental impact would have been greater to get new solar panels and batteries made than to use the existing infrastructure. So, this time around I am on the grid. It’s not my ideal situation, but I’m fine with it.

Isn’t this just a shed?

I do cover this under “What’s the deal with codes and permits? Is your tiny house “legal”?” however there is more that I want to say with this.

Some people call my tiny house a shed in a negative manner. They are looking down on it and almost saying “how dare you call this thing a house, it’s a measly shed.”

It’s not hurtful to me to hear this, but if you zoom out and look at things from a much greater perspective, it’s highly offensive. Billions of people around the world live in much simpler structures and that is their home. The whole world is not fortunate to live in what Americans call homes and think they need for a happy, healthy existence. What I call my home is actually more in alignment with the global standard of a home than the American 3,000 sq. ft. standard of a “normal” size house.

Home is where you make it, and millions of people would dream of having this tiny house as their home.

What am I doing for insulation?

My main issue in Florida is the extreme heat. Our summers are very hot, and most people living here consider them brutally hot. A lot of people leave for the summer and a vast majority that stay use heavy air conditioning. On the other hand, our “winter” is short and in most years, it does not go below freezing. Last winter there were five nights just below freezing though. The annual high temperature is around 80 °F and the annual low temperature is around 65 °F. So, my main priority is keeping the place cool enough. For this I did a few things. First and foremost, I built the house under the shade of a tree. That keeps the house substantially cooler. Second, I put large windows and doors on all four sides of the house. I almost always have them open which creates a nice cross breeze. There’s almost always a cross breeze coming through the house. Third, I used radiant barrier on all of the walls and the roof. This reflects the sun and keeps the house cooler. By doing this, the house has almost never been hotter inside than outside. I’ve seen how drastically sheds can heat up, so I was worried about this when making my plan. But I am happy to say that the scorching hot summer was not that bad for me. I enjoy extreme heat and I swim almost daily as well as stay in good physical shape to keep myself naturally cool. Because I spend most of my time outside and don’t use air conditioning, my body is more adapted to the heat. It’s the extreme temperature differences that make summer heat seem hotter. Walking out of air conditioning into mid-day sun is rough. Waking up to the outdoor temperature and being outside as the temperature rises is much easier on the body. Also being outside day after day adjusts the body to the climate.

As of now, I do not have the house insulated for winter. The way I currently look at it is that our winters are short, so I may not insulate for the short period of time when it is needed. If it does get too cold, then a tiny wood stove is in the plan. I will use salvaged wood from the neighborhood, so I’m not worried about the highest level of efficiency of keeping in the heat since it will be heat created from waste.

How do I keep away insects, rodents, or other animals from your outdoor kitchen and bathroom?

So far this has not been an issue. I am ok with some level of insects. They are natural. An infestation is a different story, but I haven’t had anything remotely close to that. If rats or mice become a problem, I will set up traps and then bury the bodies to turn into soil. I keep mesh bags over all fruits and veggies to keep away fruit flies from the house. All of my dry food is stored in jars.

Squirrels have been eating my compost and that’s not an issue. So far, no problems. On the other hand, the squirrels have been a challenge in my garden, eating a lot of my seeds before they come up.

I will be here until at least November 11th 2019 when I finish Food Freedom. My plan is to live in Orlando about two years, and I arrived here December 2017. I intended to build the tiny house right away so that I’d live in it for almost the entire two years, but it took me a lot longer to start it than planned. So it will likely be 1.5 years of living in the tiny house.

Why didn’t I build the tiny house on a trailer?

The entire cost of my tiny house was about $1,500. A trailer costs about $2,000-$3,000 if I got a good deal on a used one. So, this would have doubled or tripled the cost. Also, my intention is to never move the tiny house, so the trailer would be a wasted resource just sitting there. Also, almost every backyard that was offered to me had a solid brick fence or not enough space to move a tiny house on wheels in. The only option was to build the tiny house inside the backyard because it would be too big to get out.

For me, the main benefit of building on a trailer is that it’s no longer considered a house with codes, but rather a trailer, so that makes life easier. That would be nice, but not as important as the other factors.

Yes, I am my happiest in warm places. I grew up in Northern Wisconsin and spent most of my first 23 winters there. In a typical January, it stays below ten degrees Fahrenheit for the entire month. The coldest temperature I ever experienced was negative sixty with wind-chill, and I went fishing that day. It’s safe to say that I know the cold very well. At this point in my life I want to live in a year around warm place. I lived in San Diego, California from 2011-2016. Now I live in Florida.

Living in a warm place does make it easier to live this lifestyle. When it’s warm outside, there’s less of a need or desire to spend as much time in the house. The doors and windows can be open. Less clothes are needed, especially bulky winter clothes. This all can make a small space seem bigger and more open. This is the lifestyle that I choose to live.

However, each region has its challenges and there are millions of people living similar low impact lifestyles in every climate around the world. My suggestion to anyone in a different area than me is to take what you can from my example and adapt it to the situation you are in. I consider resourcefulness and adaptability to be some of the greatest characteristics for success in life. It’s very easy to pick out little things that I’m doing, say that you can’t do that, so you can’t do any of it. But again, the idea is to take what you can to be better to the earth and to live for the benefit of the earth, your community, and yourself.

Of course, my system doesn’t work everywhere. It’s a diverse world and we’ve each got to adapt to where we live. I am just one example of what can be done to live more simply, be less dependent on money, and to decrease our impact on the environment. Many people quickly jump to saying this can’t be done in a cold climate. Most of what I am doing can be done just about anywhere- rainwater harvesting, compost toilets, growing food during growing season, reducing our trash, using resources wisely, etc.. It’s all about doing what we can, where we are. My life is just an example of what can be done in my current situation. You’ve got to be resourceful and adaptable to live like this! I have my home setup for the climate that I live in, and you’ll want to do the same.

Often people say this can only be done in the climate that I live in. Ironically the people here have a hard time believing that I live without air conditioning. Billions of people around the world live in a climate similar to Florida. Much of the world can, and does, live similar to me. I didn’t invent anything here.

People all over the world live sustainably in cold climates. An extreme example like me is Mark Boyle, who has lived without money in the UK. I hear people say it’s not possible there, but he’s a shining example of what can be done. I strongly encourage reading both The Moneyless Man and The Moneyless Manifesto if you are inspired and want to learn how to do something similar to what I’m doing has done this for years in the UK. ‪

What’s above me is a couple of pear trees. What’s surrounding me is hundreds of pears going to waste on the sidewalk. So today, I’m going to show you how to clean up your community, feed some people in need, and have yourself a tasty treat all at the same time.

Step one, clean up the spoiled fruit and then put it somewhere to compost and turn into nutritious soil. Don’t throw it in the garbage. Compost it and turn it into food. There are thousands of bees flying around as I’m cleaning up, and none of them any harm whatsoever. Bumblebees, honeybees, wasps, no need to fear them. They are our friend. Now the next step is to harvest. So we collected about 80 pounds, maybe 100 pounds of fruit from these 2 trees. Now it’s time to share the bounty. I brought some of the pears to a local food bank and gave out a bunch of them to people in the neighborhood. And don’t forget to enjoy the fruit yourself!